Early Humans Weren't Apex Predators After All. They Were Eaten by Leopards--A Lot. [View all]

By Luis Prada
September 23, 2025, 6:52pm



Using an AI research tool, some researchers have found that Homo habilis may not have been as capable and powerful as previously thought. In fact, they might have been regularly eaten by leopards. Yikes.

Researchers from the University of Alcalá, publishing their work in the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, dusted off some long-forgotten H. habilis fossils from Olduvai Gorge. That’s the Tanzanian dig site from which came a good deal of what we know about human evolution.

More specifically, they reexamined the bones of two individuals—OH 7 and OH 65—but this time had some upgraded technological weaponry on their side: artificial intelligence.

Previous human interpretations of the remains attributed the tooth marks all over the bones to scavengers, such as hyenas. But after feeding a massive dataset of predator tooth patterns into an AI, researchers think it wasn’t hyenas munching on their already dead bodies. Still, rather leopards munching on them when they were alive.

. . .

Early Humans Sure Did Get Eaten By Leopards A Lot

One skull had gnaw marks on the back of the head, a chewed-up finger, and enough bite patterns to suggest that this poor hominin had its face in a big cat’s mouth, not in some triumphant hunter’s pose next to a freshly slain antelope. This means H. habilis may not have been nearly as cool and bada** as we thought. Maybe it was walking cat food.

More:
https://www.vice.com/en/article/early-humans-werent-apex-predators-after-all-they-were-eaten-by-leopards-a-lot/