Scientists have figured out how eating meat affected human evolution – BBC

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Anthropologists have found that the size of human teeth and bite force it decreased due to the appearance in the diet of meat, processed using stone tools. The study was published in the journal Nature .

kind of evolution of Homo is not fully understood, but it is known that the brain and body erectus was more than the previous hominid brain volume gradually increased but the teeth became smaller, and the chewing muscles – is weaker.

In the early Paleolithic Homo began to make tools. Archaeological and paleontological findings suggest that people began to consume the meat of about 2.6 million years ago, and heat treatment of food appeared after two Ma.

Despite the importance of the consumption of meat, until this study, little was known exactly how it and its treatment impact on the modification of the masticatory apparatus. It is known that the australopithecines were consuming a lot of plant foods, and it required a thorough chewing and large food energy consumption.

Scientists conducted an experiment during which adults were fed with standard portions of meat (using goat meat, as it is hard and more similar to the meat of wild animals than beef), as well as sweet potatoes, carrots and beets. Products are either not treated at all or treated marginally. Using electromyography – a method study of bioelectric potentials arising from the excitation of the muscle fibers – the researchers compared how much force was applied subjects to chew a variety of products

It was found that the raw meat consumption requires less effort than for chewing. root crops. Provided that the meat diet is one third of the diet of ancient people, and for the processing of meat and vegetables, he used stone tools, people would have to chew for 17% less, and make 26% less power, the researchers calculated.

So way researchers have shown that it is the meat and the availability of tools, rather than the processing of food with the help of fire, helped reduce the facial and masticatory apparatus of the person, which could lead eventually to the development of speech.

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