Humans eat grass like cows from 3.5 million years ago

Human ancestors began eating grass half a million years earlier than previous studies, as soon as they left the tree life.

The first hominin families, who lived 3-3.5 million years ago, collected half of the essential nutrients from the grass, unlike their previous ancestors, which liked fruits and insects.

Julia Lee-Thorp, from Oxford University, said that this is the first proof of eating prairie plants. She found high levels of carbon-13 in Australopithecus bahrelghazali bones, living in savanna savannahs near Lake Chad in Africa. This is a typical trace of eating lots of grass and spleen.

Earlier, there was evidence that the herbivore began 2.8 million years ago. The people of Ardipithecus ramidus, the hominin ancestors, lived 4.4 million years ago, not eating grass.

Australopithecus bahrelghazali can eat roots and tubers rather than chewing hard grass leaves. Adding grass to the diet may have helped them leave the ancestral area of ​​eastern Africa to Lake Chad.

The question was asked by Rick Potts, from the Washington Museum of Natural History, whether the hominin people moved to the permanent prairies or lived in the mountains and steppe areas when it was appropriate? According to Mr. Potts: 'I will favor a second alternative'.

Reference: Newscientist