{{Human ancestors in Africa about 3.4 million years ago expanded their diets beyond the leaves and fruits preferred by most primates and began eating grasses and grass-like plants, setting the stage for expanded habitats, according to new research.}}<\/p>\n
The research, by University of Utah geochemist Thure Cerling and an international team of scientists, refutes the previously held belief that those early humans shared the diets of forest-dwelling primates.<\/p>\n
The research was published in four studies published online this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.<\/p>\n
The studies analyzed the tooth enamel of ancestors of humans and great apes to show early man gained a taste for grasses and sedges, grass-like plants with edged stems.<\/p>\n
“It was like the opening of a new restaurant and they didn’t have to eat the same old stuff,” Cerling told media.<\/p>\n
No longer dependent on forests for their supply of food, the change in diet helped pave the way for early man to explore new habitats, Cerling said.<\/p>\n
The question of whether those ancestors were pure herbivores or carnivores remains unanswered.<\/p>\n
“That is a mystery still to be unraveled,” Cerling said.<\/p>\n
Earlier studies indicate that early man did not scavenge for meat until 2.5 million years ago and did not begin hunting for game until about 500,000 years ago.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{{Human ancestors in Africa about 3.4 million years ago expanded their diets beyond the leaves and fruits preferred by most primates and began eating grasses and grass-like plants, setting the stage for expanded habitats, according to new research.}} The research, by University of Utah geochemist Thure Cerling and an international team of scientists, refutes the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[75],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-8265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science-technology","tag-homenews","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8265\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8265"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=8265"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=8265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}