Scientists: ‘Nutcracker Man’ dined mainly on tiger nuts two million years ago | Science Recorder
Paranthropus boisei, dubbed “Nutcracker Man” because of its big strong jaws and large flat molar teeth, lived in East Africa between 2.4 million and 1.4 million years ago during the Pleistocene epoch.
An early hominin, it’s the largest of the Paranthropus genus, also known as robust australopithecines.
Scientists have long debated the question of what Nutcracker Man ate and why it had such powerful jaws. While such jaws indicated a diet of hard food such as nuts, the flat teet appeared to be made for consuming soft foods. At the same time, the type of damage to the tooth enamel pointed to contact with something abrasive.
Now, a new study published in the online journal PLoS One suggests that our early human relative lived mainly on a diet of edible grass bulbs called tiger nuts, along with assorted side dishes of fruit, grasshoppers, and worms.
Read more: http://www.sciencerecorder.com/news/scientists-nutcracker-man-dined-mainly-on-tiger-nuts-two-million-years-ago/#ixzz2qEnqHsmV
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