Scientists 'Surprised' to Discover Very Early Ancestors Survived On Tropical Plants, New Study...

Science News ^ | Friday, December 14, 2012 | University of Oxford

[SunkenCiv]

An international research team extracted information from the fossilised teeth of three Australopithecus bahrelghazali individuals -- the first early hominins excavated at two sites in Chad. Professor Julia Lee-Thorp from Oxford University with researchers from Chad, France and the US analysed the carbon isotope ratios in the teeth and found the signature of a diet rich in foods derived from C4 plants.

Professor Lee-Thorp, a specialist in isotopic analyses of fossil tooth enamel, from the Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, said: "We found evidence suggesting that early hominins, in central Africa at least, ate a diet mainly composed of tropical grasses and sedges. No African great apes, including chimpanzees, eat this type of food despite the fact it grows in abundance in tropical and subtropical regions. The only notable exception is the savannah baboon which still forages for these types of plants today. We were surprised to discover that early hominins appear to have consumed more than even the baboons."

The research paper suggests this discovery demonstrates how early hominins experienced a shift in their diet relatively early, at least in Central Africa. The finding is significant in signalling how early humans were able to survive in open landscapes with few trees, rather than sticking only to types of terrain containing many trees. This allowed them to move out of the earliest ancestral forests or denser woodlands, and occupy and exploit new environments much farther afield, says the study.

The fossils of the three individuals, ranging between three million and 3.5 million years old, originate from two sites in the Djurab desert.

[JZoback]

Funny post....this guy has massive forearms....quite impressive...

[bert]

It would seem possible the species of the tooth in question was from a non humanoid species.

[Secret Agent Man]

I would agree on the last point you make, it could very well have been regarded as a pagan act, act of rebellion, etc. But again, we don’t know as there are no affirming statements of it being done before the flood, and with those people being evil and not possessing complete knowledge and separation from God, they could have also just as easily come to believe eating meat was a dangerous thing to do, as inevitably if it was tried people may have died eating spoiled meat. Maybe they thought the other animals and insects may be okay doing it, but not people. You have to realize since God didn’t permit man to eat meat yet, He’d have shared no knowledge of preparing meat, storing it, etc. On the other hand we see that when He instruted man to make burnt offerings to Him He did spend time explaining how to make a proper offering, on what, what to use for a proper offering, etc.