Australopithecine diet based on a baboon analogy
Dunbar RIM.
Recent analyses suggest that both gracile and robust australopithecines could have been "small object feeders" in the sense suggested by Jolly (1970). Data are presented on the diet of Theropithecus gelada, a grassland baboon which has been put forward as a possible analogy for this stage in hominid evolution. The relevance of these data for a reconstruction of australopithecine diet is assessed and the implications of a "small object" diet for the evolution of hunting are discussed. © 1976.