Genetic Changes That Occurred In The Paleolithic

Genetic changes that occurred in the Paleolithic Prehistoricists have recognized the following cultural periods based on the author's (Cabrales, 2021) analysis of the archaeological sites left by historical periods: The Lower Paleolithic spans a time interval between 500,000 and 100,000 years ago; the Middle Paleolithic, 100,000 to 50,000 people; and the Upper Paleolithic, 50,000 to 12,000 people. After that, the Upper Paleolithic, Neolithic, and Age of Metals occur, marking the beginning of a historical period. There has been significant progress in our understanding of human evolution and the role that food plays in it. The latter, particularly in the Paleolithic (~60,000 years ago), created a strong selection pressure that shaped the organization of the human genome. Through its interaction with the ecological processes characteristic of contemporary industrial civilizations, genomics has a major influence on the current pandemic of dietary-related chronic diseases. Thus, research on the most recent developments in the reconstruction of the history of human nutrition is of interest (Gómez et al., 2023, p. 43). The most significant time in terms of diet and how it shaped the present genetic makeup is the so-called Paleolithic, which started with the invention of stone tools and ended shortly before agriculture. Just 10,000 years ago saw the second occurrence, which had a significant impact on human food and nutrition (Gómez et al., 2023, p. 43). The Industrial Revolution occurred little more than 200 years ago, making it a relatively recent event in this chronological order. Our predecessors evolved many techniques to improve the nutritional efficiency and quality of their diets, which was facilitated by the outcomes of natural selection. It's claimed that our ability to choose our foods has evolved over time. The fossil record has aided in reconstructing dietary changes that hominids experienced throughout their evolution. Think about how lengthy bones act as a store of energy long after a predator has consumed an animal, which is typically a huge herbivore. Due to its high energy consumption, the digestive system faces competition from the brain, another organ that also has a high energy requirement. The genus Homo was able to shorten their digestive tracts and grow larger brains because they could get energy from a diet independent of plants. Not only are stone tools capable of breaking bones from deceased animals, but they also make cannibalism easier when it comes to removing the victim's meat from the bones and their white marrow from the bone. These activities probably started at the same time as social behaviors like group hunting and predator avoidance emerged, which improve forage efficiency. The expansion of hunting from the capture of tiny animals, as chimpanzees do now, to the capture of larger prey, especially ungulate herbivores, was made possible by social cooperation and the eventual introduction of technology. Large animal herd movements contributed to the proliferation of this activity and the enlargement of the areas inhabited by hominids. Due to climatic shifts that reduced the density of the trees, hominids had to travel across larger distances in order to gather fruits and plants to meet their nutritional demands. To walk like this, instead of like monkeys who walk on all fours or on their knuckles. The early hominids relied on fruits, vegetables, roots, and nuts for energy and proteins as they changed from being an arboreal to a plains-dwelling species. A functional lower mandibular arm is one of the features that provide an evolutionary advantage in the processing and ingestion of roots, hard seeds, and dry grains. Other qualities include modifications to the teeth and chewing mechanics. Cultural techniques were incorporated into the procedure, such as crushing nuts with stones and making flavorful cakes as a second goal. Animal protein makes up 87 to 99% of the elements in this high-volume diet that are plant-based.