What Ate Us?

Huge thanks to Bone Clones for their fantastic skull replicas. Get $20 off a purchase of $100 or more from using code HUMANKIND20 Don´t forget to subscribe - this is just the beginning. Written by Meaghan Wetherell Art by Ettore Mazza Title editing by Manuel Rubio Fact checking by Amanda Rossillo Music from Silver Maple, Epidemic Sound and Artlist. Stock footage from Storyblocks, Artgrid and Shutterstock. References: Ruff, Christopher B. “Climate and body shape in hominid evolution.“ Journal of Human Evolution 21.2 (1991): 81-105. Grabowski, Mark, et al. “Body mass estimates of hominin fossils and the evolution of human body size.“ Journal of Human Evolution 85 (2015): 75-93. Soligo, Christophe. “Correlates of body mass evolution in primates.“ American Journal of Physical Anthropology: The Official Publication of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists 130.3 (2006): 283-293. Njau, Jackson K., and Robert J. Blumenschine. “Crocodylian and mammalian carnivore feeding traces on hominid fossils from FLK 22 and FLK NN 3, Plio-Pleistocene, Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania.“ Journal of Human Evolution 63.2 (2012): 408-417. Fourvel, Jean-Baptiste, et al. “Taphonomic interpretations of a new Plio-Pleistocene hominin-bearing assemblage at Kromdraai (Gauteng, South Africa).“ Quaternary Science Reviews 190 (2018): 81-97. Hoare 2019 “The possible role of predator–prey dynamics as an influence on early hominin use of burned landscapes.“ Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews 28.6 (2019): 295-302. McGrew, 2014 “The ‘other faunivory’revisited: Insectivory in human and non-human primates and the evolution of human diet.“ Journal of human evolution 71 (2014): 4-11. Lesnik, Julie J. “Termites in the hominin diet: A meta-analysis of termite genera, species and castes as a dietary supplement for South African robust australopithecines.“ Journal of human evolution 71 (2014): 94-104. Backwell, Lucinda R., and Francesco d’Errico. “Evidence of termite foraging by Swartkrans early hominids.“ Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 98.4 (2001): 1358-1363. Melor and Elton 2012. “The evolutionary history and palaeo-ecology of primate predation: Macaca sylvanus from Plio-Pleistocene Europe as a case study.“ Folia primatologica (2012): 216-235. Paine, 2018 “Grass leaves as potential hominin dietary resources.“ Journal of Human Evolution 117 (2018): 44-52. Pobiner 2020 “The zooarchaeology and paleoecology of early hominin scavenging.“ Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews 29.2 (2020): 68-82. Conard 2020 “A 300,000-year-old throwing stick from Schöningen, northern Germany, documents the evolution of human hunting.“ Nature Ecology & Evolution 4.5 (2020): 690-693. Stanford, 1995 “Chimpanzee hunting behavior and human evolution.“ American Scientist 83.3 (1995): 256-261. Thompson 2019 “Origins of the human predatory pattern: the transition to large-animal exploitation by early hominins.“ Current Anthropology 60.1 (2019): 1-23. Smithsonian - Top 10 deadliest animals of our evolutionary history Thieme, 1997 “Lower Palaeolithic hunting spears from Germany.“ Nature (1997): 807-810. Treves and Palmqvist 2007. “Reconstructing hominin interactions with mammalian carnivores (6.0–1.8 Ma).“ Primate anti-predator strategies (2007): 355-381. Ungar and Sponheimer 2011 “The diets of early hominins.“ science (2011): 190-193. 00:00 Introduction 04:00 What Eats What? 11:39 What Did We Eat? 21:45 What Ate Us? 34:04 Breaking The Chain