Human evolutionary dietary patterns were dominated by animal-based foods, with meat constituting the primary nutritional source for most of hominin history.

Study: Neanderthals, hypercarnivores, and maggots: Insights from stable nitrogen isotopes

This study says Neanderthals might have eaten maggots from rotten meat, which could make their bones look like they ate a lot of meat—but the maggots came from meat, so they still ate mostly animal food.

Study: Diet and environment 1.2 million years ago revealed through analysis of dental calculus from Europe’s oldest hominin at Sima del Elefante, Spain

Scientists found bits of meat and a little bit of plants stuck in an ancient human ancestor’s teeth, but the meat was much more noticeable — suggesting early humans ate mostly meat, not plants.

Study: Zinc isotopes in Late Pleistocene fossil teeth from a Southeast Asian cave setting preserve paleodietary information

Scientists used a new method to study ancient teeth and found that animals that ate mostly meat left a different chemical signature than those that ate plants. This suggests early humans likely ate a lot of meat.

Study: Human Digestive Physiology and Evolutionary Diet: A Metabolomic Perspective on Carnivorous and Scavenger Adaptations

This study shows that our bodies evolved to digest and use meat efficiently, with special enzymes and metabolic traits that only make sense if our ancestors ate a lot of meat over millions of years.