Publication Date:
2016-03-10
Description:
The origins of the genus Homo are murky, but by H. erectus, bigger brains and bodies had evolved that, along with larger foraging ranges, would have increased the daily energetic requirements of hominins. Yet H. erectus differs from earlier hominins in having relatively smaller teeth, reduced chewing muscles, weaker maximum bite force capabilities, and a relatively smaller gut. This paradoxical combination of increased energy demands along with decreased masticatory and digestive capacities is hypothesized to have been made possible by adding meat to the diet, by mechanically processing food using stone tools, or by cooking. Cooking, however, was apparently uncommon until 500,000 years ago, and the effects of carnivory and Palaeolithic processing techniques on mastication are unknown. Here we report experiments that tested how Lower Palaeolithic processing technologies affect chewing force production and efficacy in humans consuming meat and underground storage organs (USOs). We find that if meat comprised one-third of the diet, the number of chewing cycles per year would have declined by nearly 2 million (a 13% reduction) and total masticatory force required would have declined by 15%. Furthermore, by simply slicing meat and pounding USOs, hominins would have improved their ability to chew meat into smaller particles by 41%, reduced the number of chews per year by another 5%, and decreased masticatory force requirements by an additional 12%. Although cooking has important benefits, it appears that selection for smaller masticatory features in Homo would have been initially made possible by the combination of using stone tools and eating meat.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Zink, Katherine D -- Lieberman, Daniel E -- England -- Nature. 2016 Mar 24;531(7595):500-3. doi: 10.1038/nature16990. Epub 2016 Mar 9.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, 11 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26958832" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Adult
;
Animals
;
Bite Force
;
Carnivory
;
Diet/*history
;
Female
;
Food Handling/*history
;
Goats
;
History, Ancient
;
Hominidae
;
Humans
;
Male
;
Mastication/*physiology
;
Meat/*history
;
Particle Size
;
Plants
;
Tool Use Behavior
;
Tooth/physiology
Print ISSN:
0028-0836
Electronic ISSN:
1476-4687
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
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