Latest research on South African ancient bone tools has shown that termites may have been more important as a source of protein, fat and essential amino acids in early hominid diets than meat, the Witwatersrand University said on Tuesday.
This was according to research published in the Washington-based Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, where Lucinda Backwell of the Palaeo-Anthropology Unit for Research and Exploration (PURE), Witwatersrand University's Anatomical Sciences Department and Dr Francesco d'Errico of the University of Bordeaux analyse the world's oldest fossil bone tools.
Three of the major hominid sites in South Africa - Sterkfontein, Swartkrans and Drimolen - have yielded 108 of these bone tools, the university said in a statement.
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Blackwell said: "The wear patterns on these fossils are our very first direct evidence linking early humans to a particular food source between one and two million years ago. In the past we have only ever speculated on what these early hominids ate."
Previous examinations of these South African fossils suggested that members of the hominid species Australopithecus robustus used the bones to dig up tubers.
"Now, after reanalysing patterns of wear on the bones using sophisticated microscopic techniques and image analysis software, the scientists report that early man mostly used these tools to dig into termite mounds," the university said.
In the article called "First evidence of termite foraging by Swartkrans early hominids" the authors also show that the hominids selected bones of a particular size, shape and durability in termite foraging, favouring straight bone splinters from 13 to 19 centimetres long.
It said these findings proved that insects were important in the early hominid diet and may help to explain why significant amounts of C4 dietary carbon - indicative of a protein component - were found in the remains of Australopithecus robustus, who were traditionally considered a vegetarian species.
Pure director Lee Berger said: "Jane Goodall and Louis Leakey back in the 1960s predicted that, like chimpanzees, our early ancestors would have eaten termites as part of their diet, but this is the first time that anyone has been able to definitively prove it.
"Their results are a beautiful example of a well planned experiment."
The full paper can be found at the website of the Journal:
Proceedings of the National Academy of Science: http://www.pnas.org - Sapa
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