A shift in diet has long been seen as one of the critical adaptations that distinguishes our own genus Homo from earlier human ancestors. The timing and context of this dietary shift, however, has been hotly debated. A recent study by Columbian College of Arts and Sciences researchers finds that this change in the human diet reflects a behavioral shift approximately 1.65 million years ago.
David Patterson, Ph.D. ’16 and lead author on the paper, researched the ecological context of the human lineage between 2 and 1.4 million years ago at East Turkana in northern Kenya. As a Ph.D. candidate, he did field research in this region, which provides some of the best evidence of the transition from earlier Homo ancestors to Homo erectus, our extinct relative with many modern human like characteristics.
Dr. Patterson and researchers with the GW Center for the Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology studied how vegetation in this region changed during this period. They also looked at dietary changes of other mammals for comparison for patterns in the genus Homo.