Scientists discover what could be the oldest evidence of cannibalism among ancient human relatives

A picture of the fossilized hominin tibia with an enlarged area that shows the cut marks. — The fossilized tibia has 9 lower marks inflicted with stone instruments the place a calf muscle would have been connected to the bone. (Picture credit score: Jennifer Clark)

About 1.45 million years in the past, historical human kinfolk ate one in all their very own, chowing down on meat from a shinbone, in line with lower marks that represent the oldest decisive proof that our kinfolk butchered and made a meal out of each other, a brand new research finds.

Nonetheless, it is unclear whether or not the lower marks are indicative of cannibalism, as a number of human kinfolk existed right now, that means that one hominin species — a gaggle that features fashionable and extinct people, in addition to our closely-related ancestors — may have eaten a associated hominin species.

The fossilized shinbone, or tibia, was found in 1970 within the Turkana area of Kenya. It has 9 incisions that had been seemingly made with stone instruments. The cuts are common, oriented in the identical course and located the place a calf muscle would have been connected to the bone, suggesting they had been made with the intent of stripping the flesh for consumption, the researchers discovered.

“The knowledge we have now tells us that hominins had been seemingly consuming different hominins at the least 1.45 million years in the past,” research first writer Briana Pobiner, a paleoanthropologist on the Smithsonian’s Nationwide Museum of Pure Historical past in Washington, D.C., mentioned in a assertion.

Associated: What made historical hominins cannibals? People had been nutritious and simple prey

The newly analyzed tibia is the oldest indeniable case of hominins devouring one another, however consultants are divided as as to whether a roughly 2 million-year-old Homo habilis or Australopithecus cranium from South Africa might be thought of the oldest. Current work argues that its “linear marks” had been from pure processes fairly than butchery.

Three pictures of animal bone fossils from the same region and time as the newly analyzed tibia show similar cut marks.

Three fossilized animal bones from the identical area and time horizon because the newly analyzed tibia present related butchery marks. (Picture credit score: Briana Pobiner)

Pobiner observed the incisions whereas trying to find chunk marks from predators dwelling through the Pleistocene (2.6 million to 11,700 years in the past) on fossilized bones within the collections of the Nairobi Nationwide Museum in Kenya. She was struck by their similarity with butchery marks on animal bones additionally unearthed within the area.

“These lower marks look similar to what I’ve seen on animal fossils that had been being processed for consumption,” Pobiner mentioned. “It appears almost certainly that the meat from this leg was eaten and that it was eaten for diet versus for ritual.”

Pobiner and her colleagues additionally detected two dents within the bone, which they recognized as chunk marks from an enormous cat — presumably belonging to one of many saber-toothed cat species dwelling in japanese Africa on the time. However they discovered no human tooth marks on the fossil.

As a result of the lower and feline chunk marks do not overlap, the researchers cannot inform which occurred first or how the butchered particular person died. Hunters might have come throughout the carcass after an enormous cat slaughtered it. However the location of the cuts suggests there was nonetheless flesh on the skeleton when one other hominin slashed the bone to make a meal, in line with the research, revealed Monday (June 26) within the journal Scientific Experiences.

A picture of the 3D model that helped identify the incisions as cut marks.

A 3D mannequin of the incisions on the shinbone helped scientists determine them as lower marks made with stone instruments. (Picture credit score: Michael Pante)

Researchers who initially examined the shinbone thought it belonged to the hominin Australopithecus boisei (additionally known as Paranthropus boisei, however it’s debated whether or not Paranthropus is a legitimate grouping). A subsequent evaluation then described it as a Homo erectus tibia, however the authors of the brand new research mentioned there merely is not sufficient data to assign the bone to a species.

The strategies used to check the marks on the bone had been “constant and rigorous,” mentioned Jesús Rodríguez Méndez, a paleoecologist on the Nationwide Analysis Heart for Human Evolution (CENIEH) in Spain who was not concerned within the research.

Rodríguez Méndez agreed that these are butchery marks. “The almost certainly rationalization is that the carcass of this hominin was eaten by different hominin(s), and that it was seemingly scavenged fairly than hunted, though this interpretation is speculative,” he advised Stay Science in an e mail.

That is the earliest confirmed case of hominins consuming hominins on document, however it is not the primary. Butchery and human tooth marks on 772,000- to 949,000-year-old stays of Homo antecessor unearthed on the Gran Dolina cave web site in Spain level to cannibalism as a part of the species’ common weight loss program.

There’s additionally substantial proof that Neanderthals ate one another 100,000 years in the past.

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