{"id":777425,"date":"2025-01-24T09:08:37","date_gmt":"2025-01-24T14:08:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/?p=777425"},"modified":"2025-01-24T10:29:18","modified_gmt":"2025-01-24T15:29:18","slug":"lucy-was-vegan-new-research-reveals-human-ancestors-were-largely-vegetarian-3-3-million-years-ago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/?p=777425","title":{"rendered":"‘Lucy’ Was Vegan: New research reveals human ancestors were vegetarian 3.3 million years ago"},"content":{"rendered":"\t
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Scientists have been claiming that the transition to eating meat allowed our ancestors\u2019 brains to grow and develop the crucial ability to produce and use tools. However, the new research shows otherwise, since Australopithecus individuals, which spanned between 3.3-3.7 million years ago, used tools but were vegetarian. After examining more than 3.3-million-year-old remains from seven specimens in South Africa, scientists found these Australopithecus individuals, perhaps best known from the iconic fossil \u2018Lucy\u2019, were vegetarian.<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/blockquote>\n\n

MARGHERITA BASSI:<\/strong> The ape-like human ancestor Australopithecus \u2014 perhaps best known from the iconic fossil \u2018Lucy\u2019 \u2014 might not have had much meat on its menu. After examining more than 3.3-million-year-old remains from seven specimens in South Africa, scientists suggest these Australopithecus individuals were mostly vegetarian. The new work, detailed in a study published last week in the journal Science,<\/a> sheds light on prehistoric diets using the nitrogen ratios in fossilized teeth.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThis method opens up exciting possibilities for understanding human evolution, and it has the potential to answer crucial questions, for example, when did our ancestors begin to incorporate meat in their diet?\u201d says co-author Alfredo Mart\u00ednez-Garc\u00eda, an environmental scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, in a statement. \u201cAnd was the onset of meat consumption linked to an increase in brain volume?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Scientists suspect that the transition to eating meat allowed our ancestors\u2019 brains to grow and, consequently, develop the crucial ability to produce and use tools. Exactly when and how that transition happened, however, is still unclear…<\/em><\/p>\n

The study lead author Tina L\u00fcdecke, a geochemist at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry and the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, tells Reuters\u2019 Will Dunham… suggests the transition to meat-eating did not happen during the lifetimes of the seven studied Australopithecus individuals, which spanned between 3.3 million and 3.7 million years ago. This conclusion comes despite some evidence that associates some Australopithecus specimens with stone tools…<\/em><\/p>\n

The researchers compared the… fossilized tooth samples from animals that lived around the same time, including both ancient herbivores and carnivores. Though variable, the Australopithecus ratios were more similar to those of herbivores, ultimately suggesting that these human ancestors depended mostly on a vegetarian diet. This finding, however, doesn\u2019t exclude the possibility that Australopithecus feasted on termites, like present day apes do. SOURCE…<\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

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