Ancient butchery evidence discovered

- Published: 12 August, 2010

New archaeological evidence suggests that early humans first developed butchery skills much earlier than first thought.

According to research published in Nature magazine, scientists working in Ethiopia have discovered animal bones with distinctive cut marks, which suggest butchery skills were first being developed 3.4 million years ago.

The new discovery predates previous evidence which suggested tools were being used to butcher, by at least one million years.

Scientists claim the find shows that the ancestors of humans developed a taste for meat eating and butchery that long predated the point at which it was thought that man shifted to a largely carnivorous diet in order to feed the high-energy demands of a bigger brain.