Isotopes in early South African hominin teeth show they ate little meat

Jan 17, 2025

A team of climate geochemists at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, University of the Witwatersrand and Princeton University has found evidence that early hominins living in South Africa ate a mostly vegetarian diet. In their study, published in the journal Science, the group conducted isotopic analysis of fossilized teeth found in the region looking for evidence of meat consumption.