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Early Humans Dug for Food, Study Suggests
LiveScience ^ | May 1, 2007 | Ker Than

Posted on 05/04/2007 9:08:43 AM PDT by SunkenCiv

A 1999 analysis of teeth belonging to two species of hominids, Australopithecus aferensis and Paranthropus robustus, living 2 million years ago found chemical evidence that one-third of their diet consisted of grasses and sedges, or the meat of animals that ate such plants. The finding puzzled some scientists because the hominids had flat, thickly enameled molars best suited for chewing hard, brittle foods, not tough items like grass or meat. This discrepancy became known as the "C4 connundrum," named after the type of photosynthesis grasses and sedges use to create the unique chemical signature... Now researchers led by Nathanial Dominy of the University of California, Santa Cruz say they have possibly solved the C4 connundrum by showing early humans dined not on the leafy parts of grasses and sedges, but their underground storage organs, or USOs, such as corms, bulbs, and rhizomes. USOs are more brittle and thus better suited for the robust anatomical features of early humans, and they also produce the same chemical signatures as the above-ground parts of grasses and sedges, the scientists say.

(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...


TOPICS: History; Science; Travel
KEYWORDS: godsgravesglyphs
[I'm not going to put in a pointer to the picture of the mole rat, which is believed to be part of the prehistoric menu]
1 posted on 05/04/2007 9:08:47 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
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To: blam; FairOpinion; StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; 1ofmanyfree; 24Karet; 3AngelaD; 49th; ...
I dig food.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. Thanks.
Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on or off the
"Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list or GGG weekly digest
-- Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)

2 posted on 05/04/2007 9:09:22 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (I last updated my profile on Thursday, May 3, 2007. https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: SunkenCiv

Prehistoric onions and potatoes? Were early humans Irish?


3 posted on 05/04/2007 9:12:52 AM PDT by CholeraJoe (I don't give a rat's a$$ where in the world Matt Lauer is.)
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To: SunkenCiv

We still eat root vegetables. Why would it be so surprising that ancestors did?


4 posted on 05/04/2007 9:17:33 AM PDT by colorado tanker
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To: SunkenCiv

And I bet they ate the grubs that came with those plants! Ants are high in protein


5 posted on 05/04/2007 9:25:20 AM PDT by Fractal Trader
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To: colorado tanker

I think it would be more of a headline if it read “Scientists able to prove that early humans never, ever, not even once, dug for food”

Hey, they were supposed to wait for the roach coach!

I am sure some dedicated eggheads are not trying to prove their next assertion...

“Early humans had sex!”

What a groundbreaking find that would be!


6 posted on 05/04/2007 9:25:21 AM PDT by djf (Free men own guns, slaves do not!)
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To: djf

LOL!


7 posted on 05/04/2007 9:37:01 AM PDT by colorado tanker
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To: Fractal Trader

...and I’m done with my lunch...


8 posted on 05/04/2007 9:38:23 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (I last updated my profile on Thursday, May 3, 2007. https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: SunkenCiv

YEC INTREP


9 posted on 05/04/2007 11:37:18 AM PDT by LiteKeeper (Beware the secularization of America; the Islamization of Eurabia)
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To: SunkenCiv

The Neanderthals had “Digs” too. http://www.cavemanscrib.com/


10 posted on 05/04/2007 9:48:53 PM PDT by Sam Ketcham (Amnesty means vote dilution, & increased taxes to bring us down to the world poverty level.)
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