Our ancient ancestors may have been cannibals, scientists claim

Ancient human ancestors living almost 1.5 million years ago may have been cannibals, a study has found.

Cut marks seen on the shin bone of an individual belonging to an ancient human relative indicate a large swathe of flesh, including the calf, was precisely sliced off by a prehistoric butcher wielding a stone knife.

Scientists from the Smithsonian Institution found nine cut marks on a 1.45 million-year-old left tibia found in Kenya, which were most likely created by stone tools.

The shin had another two gouges which are thought to be bite marks, likely a sabre-tooth cat.

It was unknown if the lion-like creature ravaged the leg bone before the meat was precisely removed by an ancient human ancestor or afterwards.

A mould of the bone grooves was taken using the same techniques and materials as used by dentists. The marks matched up well with those created experimentally by stone tools.

Dr Briana Pobiner, the study’s lead author, said: “These cut marks look very similar to what I’ve seen on animal fossils that were being processed for consumption. It seems most likely that the meat from this leg was eaten and that it was eaten for nutrition as opposed to for a ritual.”

Cannibalism is defined by consumption of meat by the same species. But because the team does not know which ancient hominin the leg belongs to, it remains unknown if it is cannibalism, or a case of cousin species eating one another.

It is possible it was the same species, the team said, and therefore cannibalism – but it can not be asserted with any authority either way.

What is certain, the study claimed, is that 1.45 million years ago, a human relative was eaten by an individual also belonging to a human-like species.

“The information we have tells us that hominins were likely eating other hominins at least 1.45 million years ago,” Dr Pobiner said.

“There are numerous other examples of species from the human evolutionary tree consuming each other for nutrition. But this fossil suggests that our species’ relatives were eating each other to survive further into the past than we recognised.”

Prof Chris Stringer, a research leader in human evolution at the Natural History Museum – who was not involved with the study – told The Telegraph that the evidence looked scientifically sound and “adds to the evidence for cannibalism in very early humans”.

There is also considerable evidence of the behaviour in later humans, he added, as cannibalism persisted throughout the history of the homo sapien family tree.

He said: “It’s probably not the oldest known [evidence of human cannibalism] though, as cut marks were reported on the cheek bone of a hominin fossil from Sterkfontein, South Africa, which was about two million years old.” 

This specimen is hotly debated in scientific fields as to whether the date is reliable and whether marks on the cheek bone was caused by butchery or from rocks lying on the floor.

Dr Pobiner is now hoping to reanalyse the South African fossil, which was first found in the Seventies, in order to determine if hominid cannibalism dates back two million years to South Africa or 1.45 million years to Kenya.

The latest study is published in the journal Scientific Reports.