How Scavenging Made Us Human

INVultures, hyenas and other scavengers tend to have less than stellar reputations. Because they are attracted to the smell of decaying flesh, they are often associated with death. If you see vultures circling, you can probably assume that some creature is nearing its end or has just flown away. And they are freeloaders: they don't work as hard for dinner as the hunters of the animal kingdom, they just steal the prey. So while scavengers are essential to the functioning of the planet, helping to restore order to nature and protect against the spread of disease, they also tend to be disgusting.

So it may come as a surprise to learn that ancient people may have relied heavily on scavenging, even after they had tools for hunting. This conclusion was reached by a group of Spanish paleontologists, archaeologists and ecologists who analyzed theoretical works, as well as experimental observations in the field of carrion ecology. Their discovery overturns the conventional wisdom on the subject, which holds that the risks of eating already dead animals outweighed the benefits for early human ancestors. The study was published V Journal of Human Evolution.

“When large terrestrial and marine mammals die, they provide tons of readily available food, allowing many scavenger species to coexist and feed at the same time,” said Ana Mateos, a researcher in paleophysiology and human ecology at the National Center for Research on Human Evolution in Spain and lead author of the study. statement.

Previously, scientists believed that scavenging was too unpredictable and there were too few already dead animals to be used frequently by early humans to forage for food. And the risks – attack by a lingering predator or contracting a disease from rotting meat – would be too great.

But new research suggests carrion may have been a more reliable resource than previously thought, especially when plant food sources were scarce. Scientists also suggest that humans are actually well-adapted for scavenging: they have defense mechanisms that can protect against diseases caused by carrion, such as a particularly acidic stomach that helps destroy potential pathogens. And when people learned to use fire for cooking, this would add another layer of protection. They also had the language and social skills to coordinate with each other to find carrion in the wild and bring it home for dinner.

Evidence of early human meat-eating began to emerge in the 1960s, when archaeologists began finding stone tools and butchered animal bones dating back more than 2 million years at numerous African sites. This has sparked debate among scientists about where meat came from: whether our ancestors were gatherers or hunters, or both, and when each of these practices may have originated.

Until now, it was believed that as soon as people started hunting, they abandoned carrion as a source of meat. This view, which argues that humans evolved in a straight line from scavengers to hunters to farmers, may have developed in part because scavengers were historically considered marginal or primitive creatures. But more recently, this view of scavengers has been refuted.

New work suggests that scavengers persisted among humans long after hunting was introduced. So for now it has have been arguing for a long time that “eating meat made us human,” says Mateos, it may be equally true that “eating garbage made us human.”

Main image: AnnstasAg / Shutterstock

• Kristen French

  Published October 23, 2025

  Kristen French is the magazine's deputy editor. Nautilus. She has worked in science journalism since 2013, reporting and editing articles and news for publications such as Wired, Return channel, EdgeAnd New York magazine, etc. She studied science journalism at Columbia University. She is based in San Diego.