Increase your diet, they said, it will let you get far, they said…
- antropocestors
- 22 oct 2015
- 2 Min. de lectura
Since we are children our parents try to show us how important is to eat different kinds of food, but most of the time, little boys and girls have problems with vegetables. This is nothing new, although finally we agree that our health is important and learn to appreciate green on our dishes.
Well, approximately 3.67 million years ago something like this may have happened in east Africa. Species like the Australopithecus afarensis changed their diet including C4 plants, which had never before been used to feed in earlier hominids. C4 plants are famous for their evolution and resistance to heat, as they have an edge over C3 plants in the way that they can fulfil normal photosynthesis instead of photorespiration. This last process requires more energy and creates fewer gains compared to photosynthesis. Edible C4 plants include sugarcane, sorghum and other millets.
This is really important as these plants grow in tropical areas, where the hominids may have had problems to eat enough food if it was not for new inclusions in their diet, helping in their expansion through Africa. It is known that modern hominids apart from Homo sapiens do not feed on C4 plants, so this reassures the idea that our ancestors evolved to take advantage of the environment in order to be successful.
In conclusion, species know that in order not to disappear they have to grow, not only in quantity but also in the territory they hold. New territories may be slightly different and at the end of the day evolving is embracing new opportunities to continue walking through this big, green and blue ball.
+ More info... ( scientific article)
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