Just how significant a role did hunting play in human evolution? It’s a question researchers have grappled with for decades. In an article in the April Scientific American I explore some of the latest findings that bear on how our ancestors became such successful predators and how their shift toward meat-eating itself fostered change in our lineage. For more on meat-eating, hunting and the evolution of our genus, Homo, check out the links below.   The First Butchers https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-first-butchers/   First of Our Kind: Could Australopithecus sediba Be Our Long-Lost Ancestor? https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/first-of-our-kind/   The Food-Sharing Behavior of Protohuman Hominids https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-food-sharing-behavior-of-protoh/   Scavenging and Human Evolution https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/scavenging-and-human-evolution/   Baseball Players Reveal How Humans Evolved to Throw So Well https://www.nature.com/news/baseball-players-reveal-how-humans-evolved-to-throw-so-well-1.13281   The Naked Truth: Why Humans Have No Fur https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-naked-truth-why-humans-have-no-fur/   The Hard Stuff of Culture: Archaeology at Kanjera South, Kenya http://popular-archaeology.com/issue/june-2012/article/the-hard-stuff-of-culture-oldowan-archaeology-at-kanjera-south-kenya   Rough and Tumble: Aggression, Hunting and Human Evolution http://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520274006   Case for (Very) Early Cooking Heats Up https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/case-for-very-early-cooking-heats-up/   The Origin of Human Creativity Was Surprisingly Complex https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-origin-human-creativity-suprisingly-complex/   Rise of Humans 2 Million Years Ago Doomed Large Carnivores https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2012/04/25/rise-of-humans-two-million-years-ago-doomed-large-carnivores/   Stranger in a New Land https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/stranger-in-a-new-land-2006-06/   Human Ancestors Made Deadly Stone-Tipped Spears 500,000 Years Ago https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2012/11/15/human-ancestors-made-deadly-stone-tipped-spears-500000-years-ago/   Oldest Arrowheads Hint at How Modern Humans Overtook Neandertals https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2012/11/07/oldest-arrowheads-hint-at-how-modern-humans-overtook-neandertals/