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Science 15 January 1999:
Vol. 283. no. 5400, pp. 368 - 370
DOI: 10.1126/science.283.5400.368
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Reports

Isotopic Evidence for the Diet of an Early Hominid, Australopithecus africanus

Matt Sponheimer, Julia A. Lee-Thorp

Current consensus holds that the 3-million-year-old hominid Australopithecus africanus subsisted on fruits and leaves, much as the modern chimpanzee does. Stable carbon isotope analysis of A. africanus from Makapansgat Limeworks, South Africa, demonstrates that this early hominid ate not only fruits and leaves but also large quantities of carbon-13-enriched foods such as grasses and sedges or animals that ate these plants, or both. The results suggest that early hominids regularly exploited relatively open environments such as woodlands or grasslands for food. They may also suggest that hominids consumed high-quality animal foods before the development of stone tools and the origin of the genus Homo.

M. Sponheimer, Department of Anthropology, Rutgers University, New Brunswick NJ 08901-1414, USA, and Department of Archaeology, University of Cape Town, Private Bag, Rondebosch 7701, Republic of South Africa. J. A. Lee-Thorp, Department of Archaeology, University of Cape Town, Private Bag, Rondebosch 7701, Republic of South Africa.

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