Our Ancestors

Early in our age, like 1 million BC i believe, we were just starting to actually use tools for defense and stuff, and part of what i heard was that they mostly ate fruits and vegetables or something like that, but very little meat, that’s why they had the appendix. Eating meat would eventually become more essential to their living, because the vitamins in meat are vital to grow a larger brain. (There’s at the time was no bigger than a modern chimpanzees. Or about 1/3 of ours today, i think.) So my question to you is this: What would have happened if they would have ate more meat than they were either supposed to or wanted, what if they like just had a craving for it, like i like chicken wings over asparagus, others may like that flipped around. So, if they had had more meat, they would have grown bigger brains, thus becoming more intelligent earlier. Right? Any thoughts?

The consuption of meat ALLOWED the development of larger, and more importantly more complex brains... it didn't cause it.

Also its not a special property of meat. A human brain can develop just as well on fruits, vegetables, and grains. The reason meat eating played a big role in early homonid development was it offered a lot of energy in a small packet. One animal kill offer large number of people lots of energy to allow a complex brain to be a possibility. Fruits and vegetable had to be gathered in large amount to provide just a little energy needed to gather more fruits and vegetables.

Many other animals used meat to thier advantage to, like lions. Lions however developed muscle mass and killing skills rather than complex thought.

Eating more meat gave early humans a large source of energy as stated above. Also some credit eating meat as being one of the prime reasons we were able to migrate out of africa.

Side note.... Many doctors are now reconsidering the food Pyramid they no longer feel that starch (bread) should be the most often food consumed but should be replaced with protein or meat.

Does this mean that there were no vegetarians back then, they all ate meat?

And does this not also mean that vegetarians are less intelligent than meat-eaters, it would explain a lot in my family...

Well anyway, I didn't think the larger the capacity of the brain, the higher the intelligence?! It might have been better if we hadn't evolved with larger brains, we don't need such intelligence, we need as much as we did have back then!

Originally posted by Schmidt1989
Early in our age, like 1 million BC i believe, we were just starting to actually use tools for defense and stuff,

[img]http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/homs/timeline.jpg[img]
One million years ago erectus had been around for a while. 2 million years ago habilis had been around for a while. Habilis was using tools, and some of its ancestors might very well have.

but very little meat, that’s why they had the appendix.

My understanding is that all early humans, like chimps, ate whatever they came across, and that stone tools are generally of a design that indicates that they were used to process animal carcasses. The appendix, as far as I understand, was generally thought to be involved in the digestion of chunks of bone that were eaten. It also, today, is loaded with lymph nodes and has immunological functions.

Eating meat would eventually become more essential to their living, because the vitamins in meat are vital to grow a larger brain. (There’s at the time was no bigger than a modern chimpanzees.

erectus of a million years ago had a brain much larger than a chimps.
Notice here, for example, that "Chellean Man", an erectus, is around 1.5 million years old and had a brain capacity of 1065cc, whereas the 6-7 million years old "Toumai" ape man had a capacity of around 350cc.
But I do think that the genreal idea is that with a high calorie diet, the stage was set for the development of a large brain that burns a lot of calories.

What would have happened if they would have ate more meat than they were either supposed to or wanted, what if they like just had a craving for it, like i like chicken wings over asparagus, others may like that flipped around. So, if they had had more meat, they would have grown bigger brains, thus becoming more intelligent earlier. Right? Any thoughts?

Interesting, but I don't think that there's any oppurtunity for that. The probably, like most animals, ate as much of whatever they could already.

If we say, went back in time, and gave the really primitive ape-men a near endless supply of meat, at least short of letting them eat enough to kill themselves, then they wouldn't evolve a large brain, becuase, why evolve a large brain if everything is just given to you?
The large brain has a function that provides mutliple benefits. But it requires a large supply of food. Similar to how mammals require lots of food to constantly burn to have a high body temperature. Force feeding reptiles isn't, in itself, likely to make them warm blooded. There needs to be a beneficial function and the like.