2022/01/24 by W. Andrew Barr, Briana Pobiner, John Rowan +2 · 1 citation
Social Sciences · Psychology · Arts and Humanities · #Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology #Primate Behavior and Ecology #Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Studies
paper · doi:10.1073/pnas.2115540119
openalex publication_date 2022/01/24 · openalex created_date 2022/01/26 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
Significance Many quintessential human traits (e.g., larger brains) first appear in Homo erectus . The evolution of these traits is commonly linked to a major dietary shift involving increased consumption of animal tissues. Early archaeological sites preserving evidence of carnivory predate the appearance of H. erectus , but larger, well-preserved sites only appear after the arrival of H. erectus . This qualitative pattern is a key tenet of the “meat made us human” viewpoint, but data from sites across eastern Africa have not been quantitatively synthesized to test this hypothesis. Our analysis shows no sustained increase in the relative amount of evidence for carnivory after the appearance of H. erectus , calling into question the primacy of carnivory in shaping its evolutionary history.