Archeologists learned from digging in Ethiopia that early humans ate meat as early as two-point-six million years ago. But there are so few knife marks on bone fragments that it is unclear how often meat was eaten.
Now, archeologists can confirm that meat was usually a part of the early humans’ diet at least one-and-one-half million years ago. By studying human remains, scientists know that bones can show signs of dietary problems. The skull fragments in Kenya had bone lesions commonly linked with a lack of B vitamins. This meant the child was weak and anemic from not eating enough meat.
“We don’t find these pathologies commonly in populations that live on hunting and gathering, because the diet of hunter/gatherers is actually more beneficial for human metabolism than the diet of producers. So our surprise was to find that this pathology typical of sedentary populations actually was found in a prehistoric hunter-gatherer individual that was (at) one point five million years old.”
He also says he knows the findings will not please vegetarians.
“I’m, I’m fully aware of that, yes, (laughs). We find vitamins, we find folic acid, we find vitamins B-12 now everywhere in the cereals that we eat in the mornings and in many other foods that we take because a lot of that has been artificially produced. But in nature, if we were living on whatever we’re able to obtain by living in a Savannah in Africa, B-12 can only be obtained in meat.”
最新
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25