Hominins Ate Tubers And Bulbs


http://www.nature.com/news/2007/070430/full/070430-5.html
Published online: 2 May 2007

Palaeontologists have turned to an unlikely source in a bid to uncover the dietary
habits of some of humanity's oldest ancestors. They have studied the teeth of mole
rats found in South Africa to bolster the theory that prehistoric hominins may have
eaten underground bulbs and tubers, rather than meat or grass.

African mole rats, which live underground and eat starchy plant organs such as bulbs,
have similar chemical signatures in their teeth to those of two ancient hominin
species found at the same site, the new research shows. This suggests that they may
have had similar diets.

The discovery helps to solve a paradox surrounding the diets of Australopithecus
africanus and Paranthropus robustus, which lived in southern Africa around 2.5
million and 1.5 million years ago, respectively. When the chemical signatures of
their teeth were recently analysed, the results suggested that these hominins ate
grassy plants, or the remains of animals that had eaten such plants. But their flat,
wide teeth, while good for crushing hard objects, would have been useless at tearing
through these tough foods.

A group led by Justin Yeakel of the University of California, Santa Cruz, reasoned
that one solution to this problem would be if hominins chewed on the starchy bulbs
and tubers from those same grassy plants, rather than tearing up the upper green
portions. That would explain both the chemical signature and the design of their
teeth.

"Hominins had teeth like ours, which were designed to eat something really, really
hard, like small seeds ? not tough grasses or raw meat," says Yeakel's colleague
Nathaniel Dominy.
....
The researchers looked for this signature in the teeth of present-day mole rats
(Cryptomys) and in fossilized mole-rat remains from almost 2 million years ago. As
they report in Proceedings of the Royal Society B1, the range of isotopes seen in
these species overlaps with that found in A. africanus and P. robustus.
....
.

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