Behavior drives morphological change during human evolution
Abstract
Dietary shifts and corresponding morphological changes can sometimes
evolve in succession, not concurrently—an evolutionary process called behavioral drive. Detecting behavioral drive in the fossil record is challenging because it is difficult to measure behaviors independently
from corresponding morphologies. To solve this problem, we focused on a puzzling behavior in the fossil record of some primates: eating
graminoid plants. We report carbon and oxygen isotope ratios from fossil cercopithecid monkeys and integrate the data into a view of hominin
dietary evolution, finding that changes in graminivorous behavior
preceded corresponding changes in dental morphology by ~700,000 years. Decoupling diets and morphologies in time was conducive to determining
when and to exploring why dietary changes helped to propel human evolution.
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ado2359
But where's the fish?
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