Posted on 04/28/2009 12:12:12 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Ancient humans might have used animal bones to grind fruit smoothies as well as dig up termites, a new analysis of mysterious 1 to 2 million-year-old tools suggests. Researchers discovered the bones belonging to large mammals at several sites in South Africa, and their intended use has been the subject of equal parts contention and speculation. Early 20th-century anthropologists who first uncovered the bones contended they were genuine tools and evidence for a bone-based tool culture in hominin species that predated early humans such as Paranthropus. Those interpretations fell out of fashion after researchers discovered that scavenging animals and natural wear can create marks resembling those on purported tools. However, in the last 20 years, researchers have employed electron and light microscopy as well as computer image analysis to compare marks on the bones to tools created experimentally. Unrooting vegetables called tubers looked like a good match, and a recent paper proposed termite digging... A quantitative analysis of the optical scans found that some bones resemble tools used for stabbing the ground to dig out tubers, yet some did not. The striations on tools from one site, called Drimolen, also look like marks on bone tools used by South African villagers to scrape the vitamin C-rich pulp out of a fruit called marula. The marks on some of the bones also proved a good match to newer tools used to burrow termites... Chemical analysis of Paranthropus fossils points to a high protein diet, and Shipman now contends that the hominins probably used the bones to dig up termites.
(Excerpt) Read more at newscientist.com ...
Dogpile
|
|
|||
Gods |
To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. |
||
|
· Discover · Nat Geographic · Texas AM Anthro News · Yahoo Anthro & Archaeo · Google · · The Archaeology Channel · Excerpt, or Link only? · cgk's list of ping lists · |
|||
Ah. The ol’ frog-in-a-blender smoothie, eh?
The new fad at the upscale smothie bars
All the yup-scale neanderthals were doing it.
Man am I glad I was born when I was.
Yeah, uh-huh...
—Raw termites taste like pineapple and cooked termites have a delicate, vegetable flavor.
—Grubs (which are larvae) of palm weevils taste like beef bone marrow.
—Fried agave worms (canned in Mexico) taste like sunflower seeds.
—Diving beetles (available in Chinatown in San Francisco) taste something like clams.
—Fried grasshoppers taste like sardines.
—French-fried ants (imported from Colombia) taste like beef jerky.
—A praying mantis, fried over an open fire, tastes like shrimp and raw mushrooms.
—Fried wax moth larvae taste like corn puffs or potato chips.
—Fried spiders taste like nuts.
—Fried baby bees taste like smoked fish or oysters.
Twas the Kiva tribe that invented smoothies.
Good summary. Darn accurate palate there GHF.
GHF should have been BHF...bigheadfred
I have only personally tried the fried ants from Columbia. Let’s just say they weren’t that fresh.
I take that back. I was visiting my Aunt and Uncle. Got me a bowl of cold cereal for breakfast. When I had eaten the cereal below the milk level here were all these bugs floating around. I pointed them out to my Aunt. She said, “What cabinet did you get that cereal from?” I showed her. She said that cereal wasn’t for guests. Apparently they didn’t eat it fast enough and it got bugs, but she couldn’t stand to throw it out and said she just microwaved it to kill the intruders. So I had 2 bowls. C’est la vie...
I won’t ask how you came to know all of that...
I figure it was the Romans who invented the Orange Julius.
Thanks! Is there a cookbook for these? ;’)
I don’t know about a cookbook. But I’ll have to get ya’ll over to my mother-in-laws. I don’t what it is, but she bugs the heck out of me.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.