2023-09-29 12:57:52
Scavenging could have been a successful strategy for the first hominids of the Iberian Peninsula at the end of the Early Pleistocene (approximately between 1.2 and 0.8 million years ago), according to the study led by researchers Ana Mateos and Jesús Rodríguez from the National Center for Research on Human Evolution (CENIEH) and published in the journal Scientific Reports.
The authors demonstrate through simulations that, at that time, the carrion of the large herbivores hunted by saber-toothed cats and jaguars was an abundant resource, and the first Europeans were able to compete advantageously with the giant hyenas (Pachycrocuta brevirostris) for her.
Through computer simulations, it is shown that scavenging could have been a successful strategy for the first hominids of the Iberian Peninsula 1.2 million years ago.
Hominids arrived in the Iberian Peninsula 1.4 million years ago, but there is not much evidence about how they adapted to European ecosystems and what their way of life was.
One of the most debated issues refers to the how they got their food. It is widely accepted that these early Europeans consumed the meat of large mammals, but there is no consensus on whether they obtained it through hunting or scavenging the carcasses abandoned by large predators.
Some authors have proposed that the saber tooth tigers who then inhabited Europe left the remains of their prey half consumed, with abundant portions of meat and fat that could be used by the first Europeans.
However, until now no one had quantified that content. Other scientists argue that the presence in these same ecosystems of a formidable competitor for carrion, such as the giant hyena, would prevent hominids from taking advantage of this abundant resource.
Help from a computational model
In the study a quantitative estimation of the frequency with which large carnivores abandoned half-consumed carcasses and the amount of nutrients they still contained. These data have been incorporated into a computational model which allows different experiments to be carried out that simulate the behavior of hyenas and hominids competing for carrion in a virtual environment.
Specifically, the authors simulated whether the saber-toothed felines Homotherium hiding y Megantereon whitei and the European jaguar (Panthera gombaszoegensis) they could have left enough carrion to sustain the populations of hyenas and hominidsand how the size of the groups of scavenging hominids could have affected this.
“We can simulate the competition between giant hyenas and hominids in different ecological scenarios by varying some behavioral parameters to see what effect they have on the viability of the food obtaining strategy,” he explains. Jesus Rodriguez.
The results of the experiments support the idea that saber-toothed tigers generated abundant resources for scavengers and that hominids could take advantage of these resources under different ecological conditions.
Saber-toothed tigers generated abundant resources for scavengers, and hominids were able to take advantage of those resources, according to the results.
He group size It is a fundamental factor for hominids to be successful in competition with hyenas, but its influence is more complex than might be expected.
The authors found that when the hominids foraged in groups large enough to scare away the giant hyenas (five or more individuals), the populations of the former outnumbered the latter at the end of the simulations.
However, when the hominids did so in very small groups, they were only able to survive until the end of the simulation when the density of predators – and, therefore, the availability of corpses – was high.
What would be the optimal group size?
The simulations also suggested a possible optimal group size for scavenging hominids, since groups of more than 10 individuals were able to scare away saber-toothed cats or jaguars, but groups of more than 13 individuals needed more carcasses to maintain your energy expenditure.
But the authors acknowledge that their simulations could not specify the optimal group size, since the number of hominids needed to drive away hyenas, saber-toothed and jaguars was predetermined and arbitrarily assigned.
“The simulations show that hominids must act in groups, but they also show that there is an optimal group size, although we cannot know it precisely. When that group size is exceeded, scavenging becomes a less effective strategy,” he points out. Ana Mateos.
The simulations show that the hominids must have acted in groups, with an optimal group size that we cannot specify.
Ana Mateos (CENIEH)
In any case, the findings suggest that the moderate size groups of late-early Pleistocene hominids from southern Europe might have been able to regularly obtain food by scavenging carcasses, even in competition with giant hyenas.
The authors speculate that scavenger remains may have been an important source of meat and fat for hominids, especially in winter, when plant resources were scarce.
Reference:
Ana Mateos, Jesús Rodríguez et al. “Computer simulation of scavenging by hominins and giant hyenas in the late Early Pleistocene”. Scientific Reports, 2023
Scientists from the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), the University of Trier (Cognitive Social Simulation Lab) and the Senckenberg Research Institute in Frankfurt, in Germany, as well as the Autonomous University of Madrid, in the framework of the project TROPHIc.
Rights: Creative Commons.
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