ScienceDaily
Your source for the latest research news
Follow Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Subscribe RSS Feeds Newsletters
New:
  • Unprecedented Glimpse of Merging Galaxies
  • Chimps Synchronize Their Steps Just Like Humans
  • Secrets of Namibia's Fairy Circles Demystified
  • Black Death Shaped Evolution of Immunity Genes
  • Methane-Eating 'Borgs' Taking Earth's Microbes
  • Pain Relief Without Side Effects and Addiction
  • Accounting For Dark Energy and Dark Matter
  • Meet the First Neanderthal Family
  • Physicists Confirm Hitch in Proton Structure
  • Five Hours' Sleep a Night: Disease Risk
advertisement
Follow all of ScienceDaily's latest research news and top science headlines!
Science News
from research organizations

1

2

Gorilla Diet Tips -- Have We 'Evolved To Eat Mush'?

Date:
March 3, 2005
Source:
American Association For The Advancement Of Science
Summary:
Early humans living alongside great apes million years ago may have gained a competitive evolutionary advantage by embracing a primitive version of the Atkins Diet, according to new research discussed at the 2005 Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
Share:
FULL STORY

WASHINGTON, DC (February 18, 2005) -- Early humans living alongside great apes million years ago may have gained a competitive evolutionary advantage by embracing a primitive version of the Atkins Diet, according to new research discussed today at the 2005 Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

advertisement

But, Craig B. Stanford of the University of Southern California (USC) hastens to add that our earliest ancestors weren't "buying cartons of eggs from the market," and probably ate many more raw vegetables, fruits and lean meats than today's heavy-protein advocates.

Stanford concedes that studying our ancestors' lifestyles may not provide concrete diet tips for today's weight-conscious humans. But, he said, we may gain fundamental insights to our origins, and thus, our behaviors, by investigating the fossil record.

The results of a nine-year field study of mountain gorillas living with chimps in Uganda offer intriguing new clues to the evolution of the modern human diet, Stanford said. The late Dian Fossey's studies of "gorillas in the mist" may have left many laypeople with the impression that gorillas are docile, cow-like creatures who favor leaves, while meaty foods are left to high-energy chimps. Fossey's gorillas, however, lived in a cold, wet, volcanic region of Africa and had little access to meat, Stanford explained. In more typical environments, he said, gorillas compete aggressively with chimps for available meat sources, and offer useful clues to the dietary adaptations of our early hominid ancestors.

Increased meat consumption triggered genetic changes that allowed early humans to eat more fatty foods without developing heart disease, according to work by Stanford and gerontologist Caleb Finch of USC.

Today, Peter Lucas of George Washington University said at the AAAS Meeting, children with too many crooked teeth in a small jaw may have evolution to thank, as tool use and cooking have reduced food-particle sizes, resulting in facial dwarfing. Lucas, author of Dental Function Morphology: How Teeth Work, said that food-particle size correlates with the size of a creature's teeth, jaws, and body size. The first human ancestor probably learned to cook to spare his little teeth, Lucas said. After all, a cooked potato can reduce stress to molars by up to 82 percent, compared with a raw potato.

Peter S. Ungar of the University of Arkansas also studies dental evidence to understand the evolution of the modern diet. At the AAAS Meeting, he is expected to describe two new methods for analyzing shape and wear patterns on teeth. "Tooth shape reflects diet. Think of carnivorous dinosaurs with their sharp, dagger-like teeth," Ungar explained. "We can infer the diets of fossil primates by comparing the lengths of shearing crests on unworn molars with those of living species with known diets."

Would gorillas and early hominims have approved of the Atkins Diet? Stanford is skeptical, noting that early humans' meat consumption "was limited to game they were able to chase down and kill," whereas modern humans in the developed world "can stock up on nearly limitless amounts of protein."

Renowned paleoanthropologist Bernard Wood of George Washington University, whose lifelong quest to understand our origins included work with the legendary Richard Leakey, said that any sudden, dramatic dietary changes could prove quite challenging for modern humans:

"We've evolved to eat mush!" Wood quipped. "We're a pretty puny bunch, really, with small teeth and small jaws. If we can't get the foods we like, and we have to adapt quickly, we might be in a terrible mess because our teeth and jaws aren't equipped to cope with anything very substantial."

Nonetheless, Stanford said, studying dietary adaptations over time can help us better understand our choices today. "People go to the therapist to understand themselves," he said, repeating a bit of wisdom he often shares with his students in the classroom. "They go into biological anthropology because they want to understand what the human species are all about."

This AAAS session was organized by Mark Teaford of the Johns Hopkins University.

make a difference: sponsored opportunity

Story Source:

Materials provided by American Association For The Advancement Of Science. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


Cite This Page:

  • MLA
  • APA
  • Chicago
American Association For The Advancement Of Science. "Gorilla Diet Tips -- Have We 'Evolved To Eat Mush'?." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 3 March 2005. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/02/050223144712.htm>.
American Association For The Advancement Of Science. (2005, March 3). Gorilla Diet Tips -- Have We 'Evolved To Eat Mush'?. ScienceDaily. Retrieved October 21, 2022 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/02/050223144712.htm
American Association For The Advancement Of Science. "Gorilla Diet Tips -- Have We 'Evolved To Eat Mush'?." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/02/050223144712.htm (accessed October 21, 2022).

  • RELATED TOPICS
    • Health & Medicine
      • Dentistry
      • Nutrition
      • Diet and Weight Loss
    • Mind & Brain
      • Nutrition Research
      • Dieting and Weight Control
      • Educational Psychology
    • Plants & Animals
      • Food
      • Evolutionary Biology
      • Apes
advertisement

  • RELATED TERMS
    • Atkins Diet
    • Gibbon
    • Great Ape language
    • Science
    • Hominidae
    • Parallel evolution
    • Dinosaur
    • Competitive exclusion in ecology
advertisement

  Print   Email   Share

advertisement

1

2

3

4

5
Most Popular
this week

HEALTH & MEDICINE
Eating Late Increases Hunger, Decreases Calories Burned, and Changes Fat Tissue
Clusters of Genes Help Mice Live Longer
Study of Over 5 Million People's DNA Reveals Genetic Links to Height
MIND & BRAIN
Dogs Can Smell When We're Stressed, Study Suggests
Human Brain Cells in a Dish Learn to Play Pong in Real Time
Healthy Aging Requires an Understanding of Personality Types
LIVING & WELL
Did the Pandemic Change Our Personalities?
Five Hours' Sleep a Night Linked to Higher Risk of Multiple Diseases
Too Much Motivation Affects Our Decision-Making
advertisement

Strange & Offbeat
 

HEALTH & MEDICINE
RNA Origami Enables Applications in Synthetic Biology
Unlocking the Power of Our Emotional Memory
Robotic Drug Capsule Can Deliver Drugs to Gut
MIND & BRAIN
Our Brains Use Quantum Computation
Human Brain Cells in a Dish Learn to Play Pong in Real Time
Dogs Can Smell When We're Stressed, Study Suggests
LIVING & WELL
Researchers Develop Painless Tattoos That Can Be Self-Administered
Washing Dishes With Superheated Steam More Effective, Earth-Friendly
News Addiction Linked to Not Only Poor Mental Wellbeing but Physical Health Too, New Study Shows
Explore More
from ScienceDaily

RELATED STORIES

Humans Did Not Cause Woolly Mammoths to Go Extinct -- Climate Change Did
Oct. 20, 2021 — Humans did not cause woolly mammoths to go extinct -- climate change did. For five million years, woolly mammoths roamed the earth until they vanished for good nearly 4,000 years ago -- and ...
Cutting-Edge Analysis of Prehistoric Teeth Sheds New Light on the Diets of Lizards and Snakes
Mar. 2, 2021 — New research has revealed that the diets of early lizards and snakes, which lived alongside dinosaurs around 100 million years ago, were more varied and advanced than previously ...
Fossilized Insect from 100 Million Years Ago Is Oldest Record of Primitive Bee With Pollen
Feb. 12, 2020 — Beetle parasites clinging to a primitive bee 100 million years ago may have caused the flight error that, while deadly for the insect, is a boon for science ...
Extinct Weasel Relative With Confounding Skull Likely Ate Meat With a Side of Veggies
Feb. 22, 2019 — The oddly shaped skull of Leptarctus primus, an extinct weasel relative that lived in North America and Asia about 20 million years ago, has long led to conflicting theories about its diet. But new ...
advertisement


SD
  • SD
    • Home Page
    • Top Science News
    • Latest News
  • Home
    • Home Page
    • Top Science News
    • Latest News
  • Health
    • View all the latest top news in the health sciences,
      or browse the topics below:
      Health & Medicine
      • Allergy
      • Alternative Medicine
      • Birth Control
      • Cancer
      • Diabetes
      • Diseases
      • Heart Disease
      • HIV and AIDS
      • Obesity
      • Stem Cells
      • ... more topics
      Mind & Brain
      • ADD and ADHD
      • Addiction
      • Alzheimer's
      • Autism
      • Depression
      • Headaches
      • Intelligence
      • Psychology
      • Relationships
      • Schizophrenia
      • ... more topics
      Living Well
      • Parenting
      • Pregnancy
      • Sexual Health
      • Skin Care
      • Men's Health
      • Women's Health
      • Nutrition
      • Diet and Weight Loss
      • Fitness
      • Healthy Aging
      • ... more topics
  • Tech
    • View all the latest top news in the physical sciences & technology,
      or browse the topics below:
      Matter & Energy
      • Aviation
      • Chemistry
      • Electronics
      • Fossil Fuels
      • Nanotechnology
      • Physics
      • Quantum Physics
      • Solar Energy
      • Technology
      • Wind Energy
      • ... more topics
      Space & Time
      • Astronomy
      • Black Holes
      • Dark Matter
      • Extrasolar Planets
      • Mars
      • Moon
      • Solar System
      • Space Telescopes
      • Stars
      • Sun
      • ... more topics
      Computers & Math
      • Artificial Intelligence
      • Communications
      • Computer Science
      • Hacking
      • Mathematics
      • Quantum Computers
      • Robotics
      • Software
      • Video Games
      • Virtual Reality
      • ... more topics
  • Enviro
    • View all the latest top news in the environmental sciences,
      or browse the topics below:
      Plants & Animals
      • Agriculture and Food
      • Animals
      • Biology
      • Biotechnology
      • Endangered Animals
      • Extinction
      • Genetically Modified
      • Microbes and More
      • New Species
      • Zoology
      • ... more topics
      Earth & Climate
      • Climate
      • Earthquakes
      • Environment
      • Geography
      • Geology
      • Global Warming
      • Hurricanes
      • Ozone Holes
      • Pollution
      • Weather
      • ... more topics
      Fossils & Ruins
      • Ancient Civilizations
      • Anthropology
      • Archaeology
      • Dinosaurs
      • Early Humans
      • Early Mammals
      • Evolution
      • Lost Treasures
      • Origin of Life
      • Paleontology
      • ... more topics
  • Society
    • View all the latest top news in the social sciences & education,
      or browse the topics below:
      Science & Society
      • Arts & Culture
      • Consumerism
      • Economics
      • Political Science
      • Privacy Issues
      • Public Health
      • Racial Disparity
      • Religion
      • Sports
      • World Development
      • ... more topics
      Business & Industry
      • Biotechnology & Bioengineering
      • Computers & Internet
      • Energy & Resources
      • Engineering
      • Medical Technology
      • Pharmaceuticals
      • Transportation
      • ... more topics
      Education & Learning
      • Animal Learning & Intelligence
      • Creativity
      • Educational Psychology
      • Educational Technology
      • Infant & Preschool Learning
      • Learning Disorders
      • STEM Education
      • ... more topics
  • Quirky
    • Top News
    • Human Quirks
    • Odd Creatures
    • Bizarre Things
    • Weird World
Free Subscriptions

Get the latest science news with ScienceDaily's free email newsletters, updated daily and weekly. Or view hourly updated newsfeeds in your RSS reader:

  • Email Newsletters
  • RSS Feeds
Follow Us

Keep up to date with the latest news from ScienceDaily via social networks:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
Have Feedback?

Tell us what you think of ScienceDaily -- we welcome both positive and negative comments. Have any problems using the site? Questions?

  • Leave Feedback
  • Contact Us
About This Site  |  Staff  |  Reviews  |  Contribute  |  Advertise  |  Privacy Policy  |  Editorial Policy  |  Terms of Use
Copyright 1995-2022 ScienceDaily or by other parties, where indicated. All rights controlled by their respective owners.
Content on this website is for information only. It is not intended to provide medical or other professional advice.
Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily, its staff, its contributors, or its partners.
Financial support for ScienceDaily comes from advertisements and referral programs, where indicated.
— CCPA: Do Not Sell My Information — GDPR: Privacy Settings —