Ancient Hominid Named Nutcracker Man Actually More of a Grass Eater
Posted on May 3, 2011
Nutcracker Man's diet has been a source of scientific debate because his powerful jaws, huge molars and big, flat cheek teeth suggest he probably fed on nuts and seeds or roots and tubers. But new research shows he most likely ate grass and possibly sedges. The ancient, bipedal hominid, Paranthropus boisei, lived 1.2 million to 2.3 million years ago.
Geochemist Thure Cerling, lead author of a study published in the online edition of the journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (pnas.org), says Nutcracker Man most likely dined on grass and possibly sedges.
Cerling and colleagues determined P. boisei's diet by analyzing carbon isotope ratios in the tooth enamel of 24 teeth from 22 P. boisei's individuals. The isotope analysis indicated P. boisei's individuals preferred C4 grasses and sedges over C3 trees, shrubs and bushes. The findings showed their diets averaged about 77% C4 plants, ranging from a low of 61% to a high of 91%. The data is statistically indistinguishable from the grass diets of grazing animals that lived at the same time.
Cerling says the Nutcracker Man was competing with the grazing animals of its time period. Cerlin says, "They were eating at the same table."
Study co-author Matt Sponheimer, anthropology professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, says, "Frankly, we didn't expect to find the primate equivalent of a cow dangling from a remote twig of our family tree. Fortunately for us, the work of several research groups over the last several years has begun to soften prevailing notions of early hominid diets. If we had presented our new results at a scientific meeting 20 years ago, we would have been laughed out of the room."/p>