A new study points to a diversity of early human diets around 2 million years ago. Tiny fossilized bits of plants, known as phytoliths, trapped on the surface of fossil teeth provide evidence that Australopithecus sediba ate forest foods. These foods included bark, leaves, sedges, grasses, fruit, and palm. The chemistry of Au. sediba's tooth enamel also indicates a diet focused on forest plants. Microscopic damage made by food particles on the tooth surfaces further show that this species ate harder foods than did contemporaneous species, which ate grasses and softer savanna plants.

This study was published in the journal Nature on June 27th, 2012.

Image Credit: Courtesy of Lee Berger