Researchers find human ancestors switched to eating grasses earlier than thought
Tuesday, November 13, 2012 - 07:00
in Paleontology & Archaeology
(Phys.org)—An international team of researchers has found evidence that suggests a human ancestor – Australopithecus bahrelghazali – was eating grass plants almost a million years earlier than most scientists had thought. In their paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the team says carbon dating of tooth fossil samples found in Chad indicate early hominins had been dining on a diet heavy in plants that contained 4 carbon atoms (C4), which are typical of grasses or sedges.