New Technology Shows Our Ancestors Ate -- Everything!

AScribe Health News Service, August, 2005

Byline: Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions

BALTIMORE, Aug. 4 (AScribe Newswire) -- Using a powerful microscope and computer software, a team of scientists from Johns Hopkins, the University of Arkansas, Worcester Polytechnic Institute and elsewhere has developed a faster and more objective way to examine the surfaces of fossilized teeth, a practice used to figure out the diets of our early ancestors.

By comparing teeth from two species of early humans, Australopithecus africanus and Paranthropus robustus, the researchers confirm previous evidence that A. africanus ate more tough foods, such as leaves, and P. robustus ate more hard, brittle foods. But they also revealed wear patterns suggesting that both species had variable diets. "This new...

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