When Humans Were Prey

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Not too long ago, our early human ancestors were under constant threat of attack from predators. And it turns out that this difficult chapter in our history may be responsible for the adaptations that allowed us to become so successful.

Produced for PBS Digital Studios.

Super special thanks to the following Patreon patrons for helping make Eons possible: Katie Fichtner, Anthony Callaghan, Renzo Caimi Ordenes, John Vanek, Neil H. Gray, Marilyn Wolmart, Esmeralda Rupp-Spangle, Gregory Donovan, Ehit Dinesh Agarwal, الخليفي سلطان , Gabriel Cortez, Marcus Lejon, Robert Arévalo, Robert Hill, Kelby Reid, Todd Dittman, Betsy Radley, PS, Colin Sylvester, Philip Slingerland, Jose Garcia, Eric Vonk, Tony Wamsley, Henrik Peteri, Jonathan Wright, Jon Monteiro, James Bording, Brad Nicholls, Miles Chaston, Michael McClellan, Jeff Graham, Maria Humphrey, Nathan Paskett, Connor Jensen, Daisuke Goto, Hubert Rady, Yuntao Zhou, Gregory Kintz, Tyson Cleary, Chandler Bass, Maly Lor, Joao Ascensao, Tsee Lee, Sarah Fritts, Ruben Winter, Ron Harvey Jr, Jacob Gerke, Alex Yan

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References:
Berger, L. R. (2006). Brief communication: Predatory bird damage to the Taung type-skull of Australopithecus africanus Dart 1925. American Journal of Physical Anthropology: The Official Publication of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, 131(2), 166-168.
Berger, L. R., & Clarke, R. J. (1995). Eagle involvement in accumulation of the Taung child fauna. Journal of Human Evolution, 29(3), 275-299.
Berger, L. R., & McGraw, W. S. (2007). Further evidence for eagle predation of, and feeding damage on, the Taung child. South African Journal of Science, 103(11-12), 496-498.
Blumenschine, R. J., Stanistreet, I. G., Njau, J. K., Bamford, M. K., Masao, F. T., Albert, R. M., ... & Fernández-Jalvo, Y. (2012). Environments and hominin activities across the FLK Peninsula during Zinjanthropus times (1.84 Ma), Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. Journal of Human Evolution, 63(2), 364-383.
Brain, C. K. (1970). New finds at the Swartkrans australopithecine site. Nature, 225(5238), 1112.
Brain, C. K. (1983). The hunters or the hunted?: an introduction to African cave taphonomy. University of Chicago Press.
Bunn, H. T. (1991). A taphonomic perspective on the archaeology of human origins. Annual Review of Anthropology, 20(1), 433-467.
Dart, R. A. (1949). The predatory implemental technique of Australopithecus. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 7(1), 1-38.
Dart, R. A. (1953). The predatory transition from ape to man. Brill.
Dart, R. A. (1958). The Minimal Bone-Breccia Content of Makapansgat and the Australopithecine Predatory Habit. American Anthropologist, 60(5), 923-931.
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Hart, D., & Sussman, R. W. (2011). The influence of predation on primate and early human evolution: impetus for cooperation. In Origins of Altruism and Cooperation (pp. 19-40). Springer, New York, NY.
Njau, J. K., & Blumenschine, R. J. (2006). A diagnosis of crocodile feeding traces on larger mammal bone, with fossil examples from the Plio-Pleistocene Olduvai Basin, Tanzania. Journal of Human Evolution, 50(2), 142-162.
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Tobias, P. V. (1990). When and by whom was the Taung skull discovered. Para conocer al hombre: homenaje a Santiago Genovése. Mexico City: Universidad Nacional Autonoma da Mexico, 207-213.
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[gorillajuice]

That’s why I leave my kitchen window drapes open. I let the birds see me scramble eggs just so they know what I’m capable of.

[imppious]

"When Humans were prey." As an Australian, I am pretty sure that was last Thursday.

[isaacaltman]

Early humans: “Ahh call an ambulance!”

*picks up sharp stick*: “ but not for me”

[zarblitz]

You know when you're outside and a shadow quickly passes over you and you get this flash of dread and you flinch? The Taung child knows why.

[fluffymawilefan]

Some little ape kid running around in Taung: (minding its own business)
Giant predatorial bird: *_Y O I N K_*

[ThatsWhatSheSaid-]

Humans: **looks at dogs** "You're ok. Don't show up to the savannah tomorrow."

[curseditem]

Everybody in the animal kingdom playing gangsta till a human sharpens a stick

[chris-fjty]

Imagine being bullied and eventually leveling up so much you can destroy the entire planet

[Bruh-igec]

Animals: what are you gonna do you're slower, weaker, and you have no claws
Human: ahem (pulls out stick with pointy thingy)

[NoneExon]

Might be that our fear of monsters and such, manifested in countless stories dating back a looong time, comes from a time, where we were actually hunted by monsters.

[thatoneguy]

human: starts picking up rocks
other animals: why do i hear boss music?

[Felix-bmzf]

dog species: eat humans for centuries
humans: evolve into the strongest animals in the world
dog species: switch teams

[Eric]

Imagine being killed by a leopard just to be called sk 54

[hoorayimhelping]

becoming large, smart, and powerful over a few million years just to give a big evolutionary middle finger to the animals that used to eat us is the most human thing ever.

[immersiveparadox]

This guy spoke as many words in 10 mins as I would say in 2 days.

[bananaboi]

I can only imagine how terrifying large predator birds would’ve been to early humans. At any moment you could get picked up off the ground and you would never hear them coming.

[darjeelingst.gloriana]

Imagine walking to work and suddenly you're getting picked up by a huge Eagle

[RANDOMstuffanimation]

Everybody gangsta till the bullied species starts slamming sticks and stones together

[frankfedison]

"Monster is a relative term. To a canary, a cat is a monster. We're just used to being the cat." - Dr Henry Wu

[owenb]

So glad to be alive during the apex predator stage of human evolution