Computer vision supports primary access to meat by early Homo 1.84 million years ago

PeerJ

article

Lucía Cobo-Sánchez¹  Marcos Pizarro-Monzo¹  Gabriel Cifuentes-Alcobendas¹  Blanca Jiménez García¹  Natalia Abellán Beltrán¹  Lloyd A. Courtenay⁵  Audax Mabulla⁶  Enrique Baquedano¹  Manuel Domínguez-Rodrigo¹ 

[1] Institute of Evolution in Africa, University of Alcala;Institute of Archaeology, University of Cologne;Area of Prehistory ,(Department History and Philosophy, University of Alcala;Department of Artificial Intelligence of UNED ,(National University for Distance Education);Department of Cartographic and Terrain Engineering, Superior Polytechnic School of Ávila,, University of Salamanca;Department of Archaeology and Heritage Studies, University of Dar es Salaam;Regional Paleontological and Archaeological Museum of Madrid;Department of Anthropology, Rice University

关键词: Computer vision;    Taphonomy;    Tooth marks;    Paleoanthropology;    Meat-eating;    Human evolution;   

DOI  :  10.7717/peerj.14148

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Inra

【 摘 要 】

Human carnivory is atypical among primates. Unlike chimpanzees and bonobos, who are known to hunt smaller monkeys and eat them immediately, human foragers often cooperate to kill large animals and transport them to a safe location to be shared. While it is known that meat became an important part of the hominin diet around 2.6–2 Mya, whether intense cooperation and food sharing developed in conjunction with the regular intake of meat remains unresolved. A widespread assumption is that early hominins acquired animal protein through klepto-parasitism at felid kills. This should be testable by detecting felid-specific bone modifications and tooth marks on carcasses consumed by hominins. Here, deep learning (DL) computer vision was used to identify agency through the analysis of tooth pits and scores on bones recovered from the Early Pleistocene site of DS (Bed I, Olduvai Gorge). We present the first objective evidence of primary access to meat by hominins 1.8 Mya by showing that the most common securely detectable bone-modifying fissipeds at the site were hyenas. The absence of felid modifications in most of the carcasses analyzed indicates that hominins were the primary consumers of most animals accumulated at the site, with hyenas intervening at the post-depositional stage. This underscores the role of hominins as a prominent part of the early Pleistocene African carnivore guild. It also stresses the major (and potentially regular) role that meat played in the diet that configured the emergence of early Homo.

【 授权许可】

CC BY