HoMeCo in the media

Science Podcast with Tina Lüdecke: Nailing down when our ancestors became meat eaters

January 16, 2025
In the weekly AAAS Science podcast, Sarah Crespi interviews Tina Lüdecke about HoMeCo’s groundbreaking study on meat consumption in our early ancestor, Australopithecus.
Tina discusses the innovative method she used to analyze nitrogen isotopes in tooth enamel, how Australopithecus is related to modern humans, and the significance of energy-dense resources like meat in early hominin evolution. Listen here

Newsprint reporting about HoMeCo’s article in Science: Australopithecus at Sterkfontein did not consume substantial mammalian meat  

January 16, 2025
Several newsprints have highlighted our recent research on the dietary habits of Australopithecus, shedding new light on the evolutionary history of early hominins. Our study, which analyzed dental wear patterns and stable isotope compositions, reveals that Australopithecus primarily consumed fruits, leaves, and tubers. This evidence supports the view that energy-dense meat consumption emerged later in hominin evolution. Free access Link to the paper can be found here: https://www.science.org/stoken/author-tokens/ST-2368/full 
For more details, read the Science News here:  https://www.sciencenews.org/article/early-human-ancestors-didnt-eat-meat  or the Reuters article here:

HoMeCo on TV:  Vegetarian or meat. How the diet of our ancestors looked like.

January 16, 2025
5 minute- long video on German TV ( SWR). The research team was able to test the new dental analysis for the first time on seven prehumans of the genus Australopithecus.The results of the study published in the journal Scinece are clear: The research team finds no indication of meat in the teeth: "This does not mean that they have not eaten any meat at all, but in any case not enough to measure it or influence brain growth," says Tina Lüdecke. (German only)

HoMeCo on TV. Human evolution: Was eating meat important?

August 14, 2024
In this 3 minute-long video on German TV (SWR and Tagesschau.de) Tina Lüdecke explains how new dental analyses aim to solve one of the greatest mysteries of the evolution of our human ancestors: How important was the comnsumption of meat for our ancestors, and was it the breakthrough that led to modern humans (German only)

Uncovering the real paleo diet: Scientific team wins HFSP Research Grant

April 12, 2023
Emmy Noether Group leader Tina Lüdecke from the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry (MPIC) in Mainz, has been awarded a prestigious and highly competitive Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP) Research Grant along with Cajetan Neubauer from the University of Colorado Boulder (Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research) and Rani Bakkour from the Technical University of Munich (TUM). The three-year funding, around U.S. $1 million in total, will support the international scientific team led by principal investigator Cajetan Neubauer ...

New Emmy Noether Junior Research Group: When did meat enter our diet?

June 24, 2021
For her research on the onset and evolution of early hominin meat consumption, Dr Tina Lüdecke will receive funding of more than €1.3 million from the German Research Foundation (DFG). Lüdecke is using this funding to set up her own Emmy Noether Junior Research Group at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry (MPIC) in Mainz. Starting in September Lüdecke’s group will over the next six years investigate when meat entered the diet of the human ancestors and how consumption developed.

Tina Lüdecke on StarTalk Radio with Neil deGrasse Tyson: Climate and Diet of Early Humans

December 28, 2020
What were early humans like? What did they eat? What did they do? On this episode of StarTalk Radio, Neil deGrasse Tyson and comic co-host Matt Kirshen investigate the diet of early humans and the climate conditions of Earth during that time with geochemist Tina Lüdecke. You’ll find out about Tina’s research studying early humans from 1-4 million years ago. We investigate what happened during the paleolithic era. How has the environment changed? Tina tells us how isotopes can be used as a “fingerprint” to understand the diet of early humans. You’ll learn why there isn’t just one paleo diet. Listen here
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