BEHAVIOR

Dmanisi hominins were meat-eaters as shown by the cut marks found on animal bones that were made with stone flakes when removing meat from the bones of different mammals. They most likely hunted their prey, as cut mark locations on bones suggest that the hominins had access to carcasses prior to other carnivores. Tooth marks from carnivore activity are present too, meaning that Dmanisi hominins had to protect themselves from the dangerous predators such as saber-tooth cats, wolves and hyenas. Most probably, hominins also benefited from these super-predators by scavenging from their kills.

An increase in meat eating is thought to be an important step for the hominins to spread out of Africa since there is less food available during winter at the higher latitudes such as Dmanisi.

Photograph by Martha Tappen