Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Early Human Predation

  • Chapter
Predator—Prey Interactions in the Fossil Record

Part of the book series: Topics in Geobiology ((TGBI,volume 20))

Abstract

From a phylogenetic perspective, human predatory behavior is an isolated phenomenon in which the propensity to capture and digest food from large vertebrate prey evolved in a minor clade of primates. From an ecological perspective, this phenomenon has had enormous repercussions for the present structure of terrestrial food webs and animal biological diversity.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 129.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 179.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  • Aiello, L. C., and Wheeler, P., 1995, The expensive-tissue hypothesis: The brain and the digestive system in human and primate evolution, Curr. Anthropol. 36:199–221.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ardrey, R., 1961, African Genesis. Atheneum, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Binford, L. R., 1981, Bones: Ancient Men and Modern Myths, Academic Press, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Binford, L. R., 1989, Isolating the transition to cultural adaptations: An organizational approach, in: The Emergence of Modern Humans (E. Trinkaus, ed.), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 18–41.

    Google Scholar 

  • Binford, L. R., and Ho, C. K., 1985, Taphonomy at a distance: Zhoukoudian, “the cave home of Beijing Man”?, Curr. Anthropol. 26:413–442.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blumenschine, R. J., 1987, Characteristics of an early hominid scavenging niche, Curr. Anthropol. 28:383–407.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blumenschine, R. J., 1995, Percussion marks, tooth marks, and experimental determinations of the timing of hominid and carnivore access to long bones at FLK Zinjanthropus, Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania, J. Human Evol. 29:21–52.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blumenschine, R. J., and Salvaggio, M. M., 1988, Percussion marks on bone surfaces as a new diagnostic of hominid behavior, Nature 333:763–765.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boesch, C, 1994, Cooperative hunting in wild chimpanzees, Animal Behav. 48: 653–667.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boesch, C., and Boesch, H., 1989, Hunting behavior of wild chimpanzees in the Taï National Park, Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 78:547–573.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boucherens, H., Billiou, D., Mariotti, A., Patou-Mathias, M., Otte, M., Bonjean, D., and Toussaint, M., 1999, J. Archaeol. Sci. 26: 599–607.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brain, C. K., 1981, The Hunters or the Hunted? An Introduction to African Cave Taphonomy, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brantingham, P. J., 1998, Mobility, competition, and Plio-Pleistocene hominid foraging groups. J. Archaeol. Meth. Theory 5:57–98.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Broadhurst, C. L., Cunnane, S. C., and Crawford, M. A., 1998, Rift Valley lake fish and shellfish provided brain-specific nutrition for early Homo, British J. Nutrition 79:3–21.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brooks, A. S., Helgren, D. M., Cramer, J. M., Franklin, A., Hornyak, W., Keating, J. M, Klein, R. G., Rink, W. J., Schwarcz,H. P., Smith, J. N. L., Stewart, K., Todd, N. E., Verniers, J., and Yellen, J. E., 1995, Dating and context of three Middle Stone Age sites with bone points in the upper Semliki Valley, Zaire, Science 268:548–553.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bunn, H. T., 1981, Archaeological evidence for meat-eating by Plio-Pleistocene hominids from Koobi Fora and Olduvai Gorge, Nature 291:574–577.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bunn, H. T., and Ezzo, J. A., 1993, Hunting and scavenging by Plio-Pleistocene hominids: nutritional constraints, archaeological patterns, and behavioral implications, J. Archaeol. Sci. 20:365–398.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bunn, H. T., and Kroll, E. M., 1986, Systematic butchery by Plio/Pleistocene hominids at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania, Curr. Anthropol. 27:431–452.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carbonell, E., Bermúdez de Castro, J. M., Arsuaga, J. L., Diez, J. C., Rosas, A., Cuenca-Bescós, G., Salar, R., Mosquera, M., and Rodrígues, X. P., 1995, Lower Pleistocene hominids and artifacts from Atapuerca-TD6 (Spain), Science 269:826–832.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chase, P.G., 1986, The Hunters of Combe Grenal: Approaches to Middle Paleolithic Subsistence in Europe, British Archaeol. Reports Int. Ser. 286, Oxford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cifelli, R.,L., 1981, Patterns of evolution among the Artiodactyla and Perissodactyla (Mammalia), Evolution 35:433–440.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clutton-Brock, T., 2002, Breeding together: Kin selection and mutualism in cooperative vertebrates, Science 296:69–75.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dart, R., 1953, The predatory transition from ape to man, Int. Anthropol. Linguistic Rev. 1:201–219.

    Google Scholar 

  • Defleur, A., White, T., Valensi, P., Slimak, L., Crégut-Bonnoure, É., 1999, Neanderthal cannibalism at Moula-Guercy, Ardéche, France, Science 286:128–131.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • De Heinzelin, J., Clark, J. D.,White, T., Hart, W., Renne, P., WoldeGabriel, G., Beyene, Y., and Vrba. E., 1999, Environment and behavior of 2.5-million-year-old Bouri hominids, Science 284:625–628.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fizet, M., Mariotti, A., Bocherens, H., Lange-Badre, B., Vandermeersch, B., Borel, J., and Bellon, G., 1995, Effect of diet, physiology and climate on carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes of collagen in a Late Pleistocene anthropic palaeoecosystem: Marillac, Charente, France, J. Archaeol. Sci. 22:67–79.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gabunia, L., Vekua, A., Lordkipanidze, D., Swisher III, C. C, Ferring, R., Justus, A., Nioradze, M., Tvalchrelidze, M., Antón, S. C, Bosinski, T., Jöris, O., de Lumley, M.-A., Majsuradze, G., and. Mouskhelishvili A., 2000, Earliest Pleistocene hominid cranial remains from Dmanisi, Republic of Georgia: Taxonomy, geological setting, and age, Science 288:1019–1025.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gingerich, P. D., 1977. Patterns of evolution in the mammalian fossil record, in: Patterns of Evolution as Illustrated by the Fossil Record (A. Hallam, ed.), Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp. 469–500.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Goren-Inbar, N., Feibel, C. S., Verosub, K. L., Melamed, Y., Kislev, M. E., Tchernov, E., and Saragusti I., 2000, Pleistocene milestones on the Out-of-Africa corridor at Gesher Benot Ya’aqov, Israel, Science 289:944–947.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Graham, R.W., and Lundelius, E. L., Jr., 1984, Coevolutionary disequilibrium and Pleistocene extinctions, in: Quaternary Extinctions (P.S. Martin and R.G. Klein, eds.), University of Arizona Press, Tucson, pp. 223–249.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harding, R. S. O., and Teleki, G., eds., 1981, Omnivorous Primates: Gathering and Hunting in Human Evolution, Columbia University Press, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hawkes, K., and Bliege Bird, R., 2002, Showing off, handicap signaling, and the evolution of men’s work, Evol. Anthropol, 11:58–67.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Isaac, G. L., 1978, The food-sharing behavior of protohuman hominids, Sci. Am. 238:90–108.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kaplan, H., Hill, K., Lancaster, J., and Hurtado, A. M., 2000, A theory of human life history evolution: Diet, intelligence, and longevity, Evol. Anthropol. 9:156–185.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kappelman, J., Plummer, T., Bishop, L., Duncan, A., and Appleman, S., 1997, Bovids as indicators of Plio-Pleistocene paleoenvironments in East Africa, J. Human Evol. 32:229–256.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kelly, R. L., 1995, The Foraging Spectrum: Diversity in Hunter-gatherer Lifeways, Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kibunjia, M., 1994, Pliocene archaeological occurrences in the Lake Turkana basin, J. Human Evol. 27:159–172.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Klein, R. G., 1988, The archaeological significance of animal bones from Acheulean sites in southern Africa, African Archaeol. Rev. 6:3–25.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Klein, R. G., 1999, The Human Career: Human Biological and Cultural Origins, 2nd edition, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

    Google Scholar 

  • Klein, R. G., and Cruz-Uribe, K., 1991, The bovids from Elandsfontein, South Africa, and their implications for the age, palaeoenvironment, and origins of the site, African Archaeol. Rev. 9:21–79.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leakey, M. D., 1971, Olduvai Gorge, vol. 3, Cambridge University Press, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lee, R. B., and DeVore, I., eds., 1968, Man the Hunter, Aldine, Chicago.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewis, M. E., 1997, Carnivoran paleoguilds of Africa: implications forhominid food procurement strategies, J. Human Evol. 32:257–288.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marean, C. W., 1997, Hunter-gatherer foraging strategies in tropical grasslands: Model-building and testing in the East African Middle and Later Stone Age, J. Anthropol. Archaeol. 16:189–225.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Martin, P. S., 1984, Prehistoric overkill: the global model, in: Quaternary Extinctions (P.S. Martin and R.G. Klein, eds.), University of Arizona Press, Tucson, pp. 354–403.

    Google Scholar 

  • Martin, P. S., and Klein, R. G., eds., 1984, Quaternary Extinctions, University of Arizona Press, Tucson.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marzke, M. W., 1997, Precision grips, hand morphology, and tools, Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 102:91–110.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McBrearty, S., and A.S. Brooks. 2000. The revolution that wasn’t: a new interpretation of the origin of modern human behavior, J. Human Evol. 39:453–563.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McGrew, W. C., 2001, The other faunivory: Primate insectivory and early human diet, in: Meat-eating and Human Evolution. (C. B. Stanford and H. T. Bunn, eds.), Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 160–178.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mellars, P. A., 1996, The Neanderthal Legacy: An Archaeological Perspective from Western Europe, Princeton University Press, Princeton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mitani, J., and Watts D., 1999, Demographic influences on the hunting behavior of chimpanzees. Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 109:439–454.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mitani, J. C., Watts, D. P., and Muller, M. N., 2002, Recent developments in the study of wild chimpanzee behavior, Evol. Anthropol. 11:9–25.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Monahan, C. M., 1996, New zooarchaeological data from Bed II, Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania: implications for hominid behavior in the early Pleistocene, J. Human Evol. 31:93–128.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Olsen, S. L., 1989, Solutré: A theoretical approach to the reconstruction of Upper Palaeolithic hunting strategies, J. Human Evol. 18:295–328.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pianka, E. R., 2000, Evolutionary Ecology, 6th edition, Addison Wesley Longman, San Francisco.

    Google Scholar 

  • Plummer, T. W., and Bishop, L. C., 1994, Hominid paleoecology at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania as indicated by antelope remains, J. Human Evol. 27:47–76.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Plummer, T. W., and Stanford C. B., 2000, Analysis of a bone assemblage made by chimpanzees at Gombe National Park, Tanzania, J. Human Evol. 39:345–365.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Plummer, T. W., Bishop, L. C., Ditchfield, P., and Hicks, J., 1999, Research on late Pliocene Oldowan sites at Kanjera South, Kenya, J. Human Evol. 36:151–170.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Plummer, T., Ferraro, J., Ditchfield, P., Bishop, L., and Potts, R., 2001, Late Pliocene Oldowan excavations at Kanjera South, Kenya, Antiquity 75:809–810.

    Google Scholar 

  • Potts, R., 1988, Early Hominid Activities at Olduvai, Aldine de Gruyter, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Potts, R., 1989, Olorgesailie: new excavations and findings in early and middle Pleistocene contexts, southern Kenya rift valley, J. Human Evol. 18:477–484.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Potts, R., 1996, Humanity’s Descent: The Consequences of Ecological Instability, Avon, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Potts, R., 1998, Environmental hypotheses of hominin evolution, Yearbook Phys. Anthropol. 41:93–136.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Potts, R., and Behrensmeyer, A. K., 1992, Late Cenozoic terrestrial ecosystems, in: Terrestrial Ecosystems through Time (A.K. Behrensmeyer, J.D. Damuth, W.A. DiMichele, R. Potts, H-D. Sues, and S.L. Wing, eds.), University of Chicago Press, Chicago, pp. 418–541.

    Google Scholar 

  • Potts, R., and Shipman, P., 1981, Cutmarks made by stone tools on bones from Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania Nature 291:577–580.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Potts, R., Behrensmeyer, A. K., and Ditchfield, P., 1999, Paleolandscape variation and Early Pleistocene hominid activities: Members 1 and 7, Olorgesailie Formation, Kenya, J. Human Evol, 37:747–788.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Richards, M. P., Pettitt, P. B., Trinkaus, E., Smith, F. H., Paunovic, M., and Karavani, I., 2000, Neanderthal diet at Vindija and Neanderthal predation: The evidence of stable isotopes, Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. 97:7663–7666.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Roberts, M. B., and Parfitt, S. A., 1999, Boxgrove: A Middle Pleistocene Hominid Site at Eartham Quarry, Boxgrove, West Sussex, English Heritage, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Roche, H., Delagnes, A., Brugal, J.-P., Feibel, C., Kibunjia, M., Mourre, V., and Texier, P.-J., 1999, Early hominid stone tool production and technical skill 2.34 Myr ago in West Turkana, Kenya, Nature 399:57–60.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rose, L. M., 1997, Vertebrate predation and food-sharing in Cebus and Pan, Int. J. Primatol. 18:727–765.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rose, L. M., 2001, Meat and the early human diet: Insights from Neotropical primate studies, in: Meat-eating and Human Evolution (C. B. Stanford and H. T. Bunn, eds.), Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp.141–159.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schoeniger, M. J., Bunn, H. T., Murray, S., Pickering, T., and Moore, J., 2001, Meat-eating by the fourth African ape, in: Meat-eating and Human Evolution (C. B. Stanford and H. T. Bunn, eds.), Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 179–195.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scott, K., 1980, Two hunting episodes of Middle Palaeolithic age at La Cotte de Saint-Brelade, Jersey (Channel Islands), World Archaeol. 12:137–152.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Scott, K., 1986, The bone assemblages of layers 3 and 6, in: La Cotte de St. Brelade, Jersey: Excavations by C.B.M. McBruney, 1961–1978, Geo Books, Norwich, England, pp. 159–183.

    Google Scholar 

  • Semaw, S., Renne, P., Harris, J. W. K., Feibel, C. S.,. Bernor, R. L., Fesseha, N., and Mowbray, K., 1997, 1.5-million-year-old stone tools from Gona, Ethiopia, Nature 385:333–336.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shipman, P., 1986, Scavenging and hunting in early hominids: theoretical framework and tests, Am. Anthropol. 88:27–43.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Speth, J. D., 1989, Early hominid hunting and scavenging: the role of meat as an energy source, J. Human Evol. 18:329–343.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Speth, J. D., and Spielman, K. A., 1983, Energy sources, protein metabolism and hunter-gatherer subsistence strategies, J. Anthropol. Archaeol. 2:1–31.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sponheimer, M., and Lee-Thorp, J., 1999, Isotopic evidence for the diet of an early hominid, Australopithecus africanus, Science 283:368–370.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stanford, C. B., 1998, Chimpanzee and Red Colobus: The Ecology of Predator and Prey, Harvard University Press, Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stanford, C. B., 2001, A comparison of social meat-foraging by chimpanzees and human foragers, in: Meat-eating and Human Evolution (C. B. Stanford and H. T. Bunn, eds.), Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp.122–140.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stiner, M. C, 1994, Honor Among Thieves: A Zooarchaeological Study of Neandertal Ecology, Princeton University Press, Princeton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stiner, M. C., Munro, N. D., Surovell, T. A., Tchernov, E., and Bar-Yosef, O., 1999, Paleolithic population growth pulses evidenced by small animal exploitation, Science 283:190–194.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Strum, S. C., 1981, Process and products of change: baboon predatory behavior at Gilgil, Kenya, in: Omnivorous Primates: Gathering and Hunting in Human Evolution (R. S. O. Harding and G. Teleki, eds.), Columbia University Press, New York, pp. 255–302.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tappen, M., 1995, Savanna ecology and natural bone deposition, Curr. Anthropol. 36:223–260.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thieme, H., 1997, Lower Palaeolithic hunting spears from Germany, Nature 385: 807–810.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Van Valkenburgh, B., 2001, The dog-eat-dog world of carnivores, in: Meat-eating and Human Evolution (C. B. Stanford and H. T. Bunn, eds.), Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 101–121.

    Google Scholar 

  • Walker, A., and R. E. Leakey, eds., 1993, The Nariokotome Homo erectus Skeleton, Harvard University Press, Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yellen, J. E., Brooks, A. S., Cornelissen, E., Mehlman, M. H., and Stewart, K., 1995, A Middle Stone Age worked bone industry from Katanda, Upper Semliki Valley, Zaire, Science 268:553–556.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhu R., Hoffman, K. A., Potts, R., Deng, C. L., Pan, Y. X.,. Guo, G., Shi, C. D., Guo, Z. T., Yuan, B. Y., Hou, Y. M., and Huang, W. W., 2001, Earliest presence of humans in northeast Asia, Nature 413: 413–417.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Human Origins Program, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, 20560-0112, USA

    Richard Potts

Authors
  1. Richard Potts
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of North Carolina at Wilmington, Wilmington, North Carolina, USA

    Patricia H. Kelley

  2. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia, USA

    Michał Kowalewski

  3. Western Washington University, Bellingham, Washington, USA

    Thor A. Hansen

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2003 Springer Science+Business Media New York

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Potts, R. (2003). Early Human Predation. In: Kelley, P.H., Kowalewski, M., Hansen, T.A. (eds) Predator—Prey Interactions in the Fossil Record. Topics in Geobiology, vol 20. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-0161-9_16

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-0161-9_16

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4613-4947-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4615-0161-9

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation