Did Eating Meat Make Us Human? Don't Be So Sure, New Study Says

[Judi Lynn]

1. Eating meat may not have been as crucial to human evolution as we thought

Ancient humans definitely ate meat, but it probably didn't supersize their brains.

BY PHILIP KIEFER | PUBLISHED JAN 24, 2022 6:00 PM

The oldest evidence of Homo erectus comes from an arid hillside near the border of Ethiopia and Kenya. Though the 1.9-million-year-old fossil is only a tiny shard, more complete, if more recent individuals show that the species looked recognizably human. The species had long legs and short arms. Its face was flat, without a chimp-like snout. Behind that face was a hefty brain, bigger than that of any of its predecessors.

The question, then, is what forces shaped H. erectus, and further down the line, its descendant Homo sapiens.

One popular theory has it that a meat-heavy diet allowed H. erectus to invest in its brainpower. But a new report casts doubt on the basic evidence to support the idea.

The theory that a meaty diet allowed human brains to develop is sometimes called the “meat made us human” hypothesis. “One of the leading ideas is that if you switch from a plant-based diet towards a diet that’s rich in protein and fat, like eating meat and bone marrow from carcasses, you have the energy you need to feed a larger brain,” says Andrew Barr, a paleoanthropologist at George Washington University, who studies the environment of early human evolution.

More:
https://www.popsci.com/science/eating-meat-human-evolution-study/