Pop culture often associates “cave men” with meat eaters. So researchers investigating people who lived in a Moroccan cave 13,000 years to 15,000 years ago were somewhat surprised to find the extent to which they relied on a plant-based diet, according to a report in Nature Ecology & Evolution.
The findings may move up the time when agriculture became favored over hunting and gathering — or at least provide a clearer picture of the transition.
“Our findings not only provide insights into the dietary practices of pre-agricultural human groups but also highlight the complexity of human subsistence strategies in different regions,” Zineb Moubtahij, of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, first author of the study, said in a statement. “Understanding these patterns is crucial to unraveling the broader story of human evolution."
