The Study
The diet of the first Europeans from Atapuerca
This study looked at tiny scratches on ancient teeth to guess what early humans might have eaten. It’s like noticing your shoes have more dirt on them and guessing you walked through mud — but you can’t be sure if it was mud, sand, or grass. It shows a pattern, but not the exact cause.
Analysis score
Maximum 44 for a cross-sectional study.
Where the score came from
Scientists looked at tiny scratches on the teeth of ancient humans to figure out what they ate millions of years ago.
Where does this study sit?
Reviews of RCTs (Meta-analyses)
Max 100Randomized Trials
Max 90Reviews of Cohort Studies
Max 85Cohort Studies
Max 72Reviews of Case-Control Studies
Max 63Case-Control Studies
Max 58Cross-Sectional & Case Series
Max 50Expert Opinion
Max 542 / 100
Quality score
Snapshots of a population at a single point in time, or descriptions of small groups. Can identify correlations and prevalence, but cannot determine cause and effect.
Key takeaways
Summary
Based on the study abstract and findings.
- 1More scratches mean they ate tougher, grittier food—like raw meat, bone marrow, or dirt-covered plants—without cooking or advanced tools to soften it.
- 2Homo antecessor had about 254 scratches per tiny square on their teeth—much more than later humans who had around 140–150 scratches.
Score breakdown, methodology, conflicts of interest, evidence analysis & raw study data
Publication
Journal
Scientific Reports
Year
2017
Authors
A. Pérez‐Pérez, M. Lozano, A. Romero, L. Martínez, J. Galbany, B. Pinilla, F. Estebaranz-Sánchez, J. M. Bermúdez de Castro, E. Carbonell, J. Arsuaga
Related Content
Claims (5)
Between 1.2 million and a few hundred thousand years ago, early human ancestors like Homo and Neanderthals relied mainly on meat and other animal foods for nutrition, while earlier ancestors like Australopithecus ate mostly plants.
Dental wear patterns in Homo antecessor suggest their diet included gritty foods like underground plants contaminated with soil or bone marrow, rather than primarily meat, because meat causes less wear than plant silica or quartz particles.
Fossil teeth from Homo antecessor show more and shorter scratches than those from Homo heidelbergensis and Iberian Neanderthals, indicating that their food was tougher to chew, possibly because they did not use fire to cook or process food as extensively.
Fossil teeth from early human ancestors show fewer scratches over time, suggesting their diets became softer, possibly because they started using better stone tools or cooking food with fire.
Fossils of Homo antecessor show more scratches on their cheek teeth than later human ancestors, which suggests they ate more unprocessed, gritty foods like raw meat, tough plants, or bone marrow without cooking or using tools to prepare food.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making health decisions.