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@ Dr. Fernando Morales
2025-05-15 03:16:39
Hi! The only way to 100% confirm this would be to have a time machine, anything else is honestly speculation. Having said that, I think one can create a possible approximation to the truth based on first principles and some hard sciences. My thought process is the following:
Different animals differ their diet as they age, herbivores tend to look for more tender plants since their teeth wear down, bears tend to also eat more plants as they age because hunting becomes more difficult, and obligate carnivores, like lone lions or tigers, simply begin scavenging more. Now, since humans are hypercarnivores (that's the stance in the proper human diet/carnivore community, with stable isotope testing of fossils, anatomy, biochemistry, paleontology, etc being the main areas discussed to support this thesis) we would most likely of had behaved like obligate carnivores or carnivorous bears, but with the twist that we are extremely social animals and knew how to use tools and fire. Dentition problems with age weren't too much of an issue, based off Weston Price's work and pre agricultural revolution human fossils. Combine that with being able to cut meat with tools and cook it, digestion wouldn't of been a problem either.
The societal part of the equation would solve the being slower and weaker as you age point, since younger members of the society could gather food. So are the elderly simply leeches? I would argue that no, they make intergenerational knowledge transfer possible, which helps boost survival. there's a reason elders were heavily respected in many cultures. Imagine having a tribe with the max survival age being 25, there would be less of a chance to pass on hunting knowledge, tool creation, medical remedies, etc. Plus, those who made it to old age (avoiding fatal injuries or infectious disease) would make it in a much more optimal state than now, we currently start dying at around our 40's or 50's.
I assume the elderly males would have consumed more plants in their diet compared to their younger years, since they would most likely of had stayed at the camp with the women and children. In hunter gatherer tribes, the men tend to consume more meat than the women. But I'd argue it would still be heavily meat based. And honestly, what else was there to eat in abundance and frequently during the ice age? A nice big fatty densely nutritious slow mastodon is a better energy return on investment than gathering fibrous tubers and the occasional seasonal fruit.
To avoid dragging this on for too long, I don't think peak reproductive age is nature's only focus, you also need to nurture and raise offspring successfully into adulthood (also, take into consideration that human children have a much longer development period than other mammals). And for this, human intelligence and long lifespans work great. I agree that the diet could've changed with age, but I highly doubt it would've been as drastic as going vegan. Eating a species appropriate diet and close enough lifestyle are the basis of longevity in my book.