Chapter 5 - Animals and Hominid Development

Abstract

The theme of this chapter is the relationship between meat consumption and hominid evolution. It is argued that in hominid evolution, scavenging led to hunting and then a virtuous circle with improvements in hunting techniques and technologies producing increases in meat available for consumption and more energy and other essential nutrients critical for brain development. The primates are predominantly fruit eating. Hominids are most closely related to the great apes (Superfamily Hominoidea) and then to the Old World monkeys and apes (Parvorder Catarrhini). The last common ancestors to hominids and chimpanzees and bonobos lived about 6 million years ago in Africa. There was a divergence with multiple Hominin species in the genus Ardipithecus, Australopithecus, Paranthropus, and Homo. These transitioned to fully bipedal successful hunters with large brains and smaller gastrointestinal tracts. They were omnivorous, cooking their food, increasingly spreading geographically, and impacting their environment. Also discussed, are the impact of the First Americans and their hunting on native animal populations and the extinction of the megafauna.