OUR early ancestors could crack seeds and nuts with their teeth.
of the University of Albany in New York used precise skull and teeth measurements to build a model of the bite of Australopithecus africanus, an upright hominin that flourished in southern Africa between 3.3 and 2.5 million years ago. The model suggests that our ancestor鈥檚 premolars 鈥� teeth just behind the canines 鈥� were strong enough to shatter the husks of nuts and seeds (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, ).
鈥淭ry sticking a walnut in your mouth and then biting on it. It鈥檚 not so easy,鈥� says Strait. Nuts and seeds may have allowed our ancestors to survive in lean times.
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