Meat Found to Make up 96% of Ice Age Woman's Diet
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🥩 Hello Meatlings,
In nature, meat is on of the most calorically and nutrient-dense foods you can access, especially during the Ice Age.
A remarkable new finding about the first humans who spread across North America during the last Ice Age put mammoths at the top of their menu, according to scientists who secured the first direct evidence of the diet of these ancient people.
The researchers deciphered the diet of a woman who lived roughly 12,800 years ago based on chemical clues in the bones of her son, whose remains were found in southern Montana. Because the 18-month-old was still nursing at the time of death, his bones bore the chemical fingerprints of his mother's diet, passed along through her milk.
They discovered that her diet was mostly meat from megafauna - the largest animals in an ecosystem - with an emphasis on mammoths. Megafauna made up about 96% of her diet, with mammoths comprising about 40%, followed by elk, bison, camels and horses, and a negligible contribution from small mammals and plants.
"Megafauna, particularly the immense Columbian mammoths, provided huge meat and energy-rich fat packages. One animal could sustain a dependent community of children, care-giving women, and the less mobile elders for days or even weeks while the hunters sought their next kill," said archeologist James Chatters of Bothell, Washington-based archeological consultancy Applied Paleoscience, co-lead author of the study published on Wednesday in the journal Science Advances.
Columbian mammoths, cousins of today's elephants, stood up to about 13 feet (4 meters) tall at the shoulder and weighed as much as 11 tons.
The mother and child were part of the Clovis culture dating to around 13,000 years ago. These highly mobile and nomadic people are associated with artifacts including large stone spear points suitable for killing massive prey, big stone knives and scraping tools for removing flesh.
The findings buttress the idea that Clovis people, whose forerunners crossed a land bridge from Siberia to Alaska, focused on hunting the largest prey on the landscape instead of foraging for plants and hunting small animals.
This strategy appears to have enabled these people to expand rapidly throughout North America and then into South America - in just a few centuries - as they followed prey migrations over vast distances.
"Clovis people were highly sophisticated hunters, with skills refined over more than 10,000 years hunting megafauna in the steppes that stretched from eastern Europe to the Yukon. Arriving in North America south of glacial ice, they met naive prey under ecological stress. These new arrivals added to that stress, emphasizing megafauna in their diet, increasing the probability for extinction," Chatters said.
Pieces of the skull and other bones from the child, informally called Anzick Boy, were discovered in 1968 in an ancient collapsed rock shelter on a ranch near Wilsall, Montana. A method called stable isotope analysis was employed to determine the protein portion of his mother's diet, tracking various forms - isotopes - of the elements carbon and nitrogen, differing only in the number of neutrons in their nuclei.
"We are all made of elements, like carbon and nitrogen, and so is our food," said isotope paleoecologist and study co-author Mat Wooller, director of the Alaska Stable Isotope facility at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
The mix of isotopes of these elements can provide a chemical signature of a particular food - beef or peas, for instance - that is incorporated into the tissues of the consumer's body. The researchers estimated the boy's diet at two-thirds from nursing and one-third from solid food.
They compared the mother's diet, as revealed by the analysis, to various omnivores and carnivores from the same period, including big cats, bears and wolves. Her diet resembled that of Homotherium, a now-extinct scimitar-toothed cat that hunted mammoths.
The study's conclusions fit with previous archeological findings.
"We have long known from indirect evidence that Clovis artifacts tend to be associated most often with the bones of megafauna and that those artifacts emphasized killing and processing of large prey," Chatters said. Source
✌🏻and ribeyes,
Miranda Ebner MS, LN and The Yes2Meat Team
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✨✨ Double Yolk Eggs
For centuries, cultures worldwide have viewed the double-yolk as a mystical sign of extraordinary luck. It's like nature's own lottery ticket, a tiny miracle wrapped in a fragile shell!
Cultural Luck Legends:
🍀 Irish folklore says it means a wedding is coming soon
🏡 Some believe it signals an upcoming pregnancy
💰 Others see it as a sign of unexpected wealth
✨ Many consider it a direct blessing from the universe
When you find a double-yolk in your Angel Acres carton, take a moment to appreciate the magic. Some say it's nature's way of winking at you! 😉🍀
The Reproductive Science of Double-Yolk Eggs
At the heart of this phenomenon is a fascinating reproductive process called "superovulation." Here's the detailed scientific breakdown 👇
Ovarian Mechanism:
🥚 Normally, a hen releases one ovum (egg yolk) at a time
🔬 In young hens, hormonal fluctuations can trigger simultaneous follicular development
🧬 Genetic and environmental factors influence this process
Why Double Ovulation Occurs:
🧬 Genetic Predisposition: Some hen breeds are more prone to superovulation
🐓 Age Factor: Most common in pullets (young hens) between 16-20 weeks old
🥚 Nutritional Status: High-quality feed can influence reproductive synchronization
Biological Probability:
📊 Approximately 1 in 1,000 eggs contains double yolks
🐣 Younger hens have a 1 in 100 chance of producing double-yolk eggs
⏰ Frequency decreases as hens mature in their laying cycle
Physiological Implications:
🤓 The oviduct can only accommodate one yolk membrane
🧬When two yolks enter simultaneously, they're enclosed in a single egg white
🥚 These eggs are typically larger and heavier than standard eggs
Egg-credible Trivia:
🤯 The world record for most yolks in one egg? NINE yolks!
Nutritional Bonus: Double-yolk eggs pack DOUBLE the nutrition:
✨ More protein
✨ Extra vitamins
✨ Increased healthy fats
✨ A richer, more luxurious flavor due to 2 yolks
🤓 Steak Origins
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The Broken Status Quo
We regularly highlight the broken status quo, so hopefully, it will nudge you to OPT OUT and forge your path.
If you find yourself nodding your head when reading about the dangers of seed oil, it's time to figure out how much of it is still in your diet. (It's likely at least a little bit.)
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Very interesting that we can tell what was eaten by the mother from the baby
s bones.