The evolution of the human trophic level during the Pleistocene

2021/03/05 by Miki Ben‐Dor, Raphael Sirtoli, Ran Barkai · 1 citation
Medicine · Social Sciences · Psychology · #Diet and metabolism studies #Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology #Primate Behavior and Ecology #Human evolution #Pleistocene #Mesolithic #Homo erectus #Trophic level #Analogy #Upper Paleolithic #Domestication #Ecology #Geography #Evolutionary biology #Paleontology #Biology #Archaeology #Epistemology #Philosophy

paper · pdf · doi:10.1002/ajpa.24247

openalex publication_date 2021/03/05 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/23

Abstract

The human trophic level (HTL) during the Pleistocene and its degree of variability serve, explicitly or tacitly, as the basis of many explanations for human evolution, behavior, and culture. Previous attempts to reconstruct the HTL have relied heavily on an analogy with recent hunter-gatherer groups' diets. In addition to technological differences, recent findings of substantial ecological differences between the Pleistocene and the Anthropocene cast doubt regarding that analogy's validity. Surprisingly little systematic evolution-guided evidence served to reconstruct HTL. Here, we reconstruct the HTL during the Pleistocene by reviewing evidence for the impact of the HTL on the biological, ecological, and behavioral systems derived from various existing studies. We adapt a paleobiological and paleoecological approach, including evidence from human physiology and genetics, archaeology, paleontology, and zoology, and identified 25 sources of evidence in total. The evidence shows that the trophic level of the Homo lineage that most probably led to modern humans evolved from a low base to a high, carnivorous position during the Pleistocene, beginning with Homo habilis and peaking in Homo erectus. A reversal of that trend appears in the Upper Paleolithic, strengthening in the Mesolithic/Epipaleolithic and Neolithic, and culminating with the advent of agriculture. We conclude that it is possible to reach a credible reconstruction of the HTL without relying on a simple analogy with recent hunter-gatherers' diets. The memory of an adaptation to a trophic level that is embedded in modern humans' biology in the form of genetics, metabolism, and morphology is a fruitful line of investigation of past HTLs, whose potential we have only started to explore.

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• Homo ergaster [wikipedia]