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April 1, 2014

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Hunting Was a Driving Force in Human Evolution

By Kate Wong

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Just how significant a role did hunting play in human evolution? It’s a question researchers have grappled with for decades. In an article in the April Scientific American I explore some of the latest findings that bear on how our ancestors became such successful predators and how their shift toward meat-eating itself fostered change in our lineage. For more on meat-eating, hunting and the evolution of our genus, Homo, check out the links below.
 
The First Butchers
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-first-butchers/
 
First of Our Kind: Could Australopithecus sediba Be Our Long-Lost Ancestor?
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/first-of-our-kind/
 
The Food-Sharing Behavior of Protohuman Hominids
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-food-sharing-behavior-of-protoh/
 
Scavenging and Human Evolution
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/scavenging-and-human-evolution/
 
Baseball Players Reveal How Humans Evolved to Throw So Well
https://www.nature.com/news/baseball-players-reveal-how-humans-evolved-to-throw-so-well-1.13281
 
The Naked Truth: Why Humans Have No Fur
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-naked-truth-why-humans-have-no-fur/
 
The Hard Stuff of Culture: Archaeology at Kanjera South, Kenya
http://popular-archaeology.com/issue/june-2012/article/the-hard-stuff-of-culture-oldowan-archaeology-at-kanjera-south-kenya
 
Rough and Tumble: Aggression, Hunting and Human Evolution
http://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520274006
 
Case for (Very) Early Cooking Heats Up
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/case-for-very-early-cooking-heats-up/
 
The Origin of Human Creativity Was Surprisingly Complex
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-origin-human-creativity-suprisingly-complex/
 
Rise of Humans 2 Million Years Ago Doomed Large Carnivores
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2012/04/25/rise-of-humans-two-million-years-ago-doomed-large-carnivores/
 
Stranger in a New Land
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/stranger-in-a-new-land-2006-06/
 
Human Ancestors Made Deadly Stone-Tipped Spears 500,000 Years Ago
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2012/11/15/human-ancestors-made-deadly-stone-tipped-spears-500000-years-ago/
 
Oldest Arrowheads Hint at How Modern Humans Overtook Neandertals
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2012/11/07/oldest-arrowheads-hint-at-how-modern-humans-overtook-neandertals/  

Kate Wong is an award-winning science writer and was formerly senior editor for features at Scientific American, where she focused on evolution, ecology, anthropology, archaeology, paleontology and animal behavior. She is fascinated by human origins, which she has covered for nearly 30 years. Recently she has become obsessed with birds. Her reporting has taken her to caves in France and Croatia that Neandertals once called home to the shores of Kenya’s Lake Turkana in search of the oldest stone tools in the world, as well as to Madagascar on an expedition to unearth ancient mammals and dinosaurs, the icy waters of Antarctica, where humpback whales feast on krill, and a “Big Day” race around the state of Connecticut to find as many bird species as possible in 24 hours. Wong is co-author, with Donald Johanson, of Lucy’s Legacy: The Quest for Human Origins. She holds a bachelor of science degree in biological anthropology and zoology from the University of Michigan. Follow her on Bluesky @katewong.bsky.social

More by Kate Wong
Scientific American Magazine Vol 310 Issue 4This article was published with the title “Hunting Was a Driving Force in Human Evolution” in Scientific American Magazine Vol. 310 No. 4 ()
doi:10.1038/scientificamerican042014-3JB161nXDWwcd5h5DPIwn4
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