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Human adaptations to meat eating

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Human Evolution

Abstract

It is argued that Homo sapiens is a habitual rather than a facultative meat eater. Quantitative similarity of human gut morphology to guts of carnivorous mammals, preferential absorption of haem rather than iron of plant origin, and the exclusive use of humans as the definitive host by Taenia saginata and the almost complete human specificity of T. solium are used to support the argument.

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Henneberg, M., Sarafis, V. & Mathers, K. Human adaptations to meat eating. Hum. Evol. 13, 229–234 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02436507

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02436507

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