How primitive, barbarian, and uncivilized were the first humans? However, this evidence is based on only one fossilized bone.
"... The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History paleoanthropologist Briana Pobiner and team have described nine cut marks on a 1.45-million-year-old shin bone that hails from a Homo sapiens relative, found in northern Kenya in 1970. The exact species of hominin has been debated since its discovery. Observing 3D models made of the fossil, the researchers noted that the cut marks are not consistent with bites from another animal, but instead indicate the use of a stone tool, most likely employed to remove the flesh attached to the tibia bone. ...
“The information we have tells us that hominins were likely eating other hominins at least 1.45 million years ago,” ..."
“The information we have tells us that hominins were likely eating other hominins at least 1.45 million years ago,” ..."
"Researchers from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History have identified the oldest decisive evidence of humans’ close evolutionary relatives butchering and likely eating one another. ..."
From the abstract:
"Identification of butchery marks on hominin fossils from the early Pleistocene is rare. Our taphonomic investigation of published hominin fossils from the Turkana region of Kenya revealed likely cut marks on KNM-ER 741, a ~ 1.45 Ma proximal hominin left tibia shaft found in the Okote Member of the Koobi Fora Formation. An impression of the marks was created with dental molding material and scanned with a Nanovea white-light confocal profilometer, and the resulting 3-D models were measured and compared with an actualistic database of 898 individual tooth, butchery, and trample marks created through controlled experiments. This comparison confirms the presence of multiple ancient cut marks that are consistent with those produced experimentally. These are to our knowledge the first (and to date only) cut marks identified on an early Pleistocene postcranial hominin fossil."
Did our human ancestors eat each other? Carved-up bone offers clues A fossilized hominin leg shows gashes that were probably made by stone tools.
Humans’ Evolutionary Relatives Butchered One Another 1.45 Million Years Ago (primary news source) Cut Marks on a Fossil Leg Bone Belonging to a Relative of Modern Humans Were Made by Stone Tools and Could Be Evidence of Cannibalism
Early Pleistocene cut marked hominin fossil from Koobi Fora, Kenya (open access)
Stone-tool cut marks (numbers 1–4 and 7–11) and two identified as tooth marks (numbers 5 and 6) based on comparison with 898 known bone surface modifications
A 3D model of marks 7 and 8, identified as cut marks from a stone tool
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