Eating meat contributed to ancestral growth spurt: study

Key Points:

• UK researchers found that human ancestors experienced a rapid body size increase between 2 and 2.5 million years ago, likely linked to increased meat consumption and more efficient bipedalism.
• Analyzing 386 hominin specimens across 21 species, the study showed a steady size increase in early ancestors like Australopithecus, followed by a significant 50-pound jump with the emergence of Homo erectus and Homo ergaster.
• This larger body size improved bipedal movement efficiency, enabling longer travel distances, better hunting, and predator defense, marking key ecological and behavioral evolutionary milestones.
• The research highlights that not all hominin species followed this growth pattern, with some, like Homo floresiensis, maintaining smaller, child-like statures, indicating diverse evolutionary paths within the human lineage.
• The study resolves previous conflicting theories by combining multiple methods and fossil data, revealing that body size evolution involved both gradual increases and rapid spurts rather than a constant growth trend.