Efficient hunting often requires endurance running, particularly in persistence hunting, in which prey are chased until exhaustion. Humans exhibit several anatomical adaptations that support endurance running, including elongated legs and extended hindlimb joints that enable efficient long-distance locomotion. The pendulum model of human walking further enhances energetic efficiency by allowing the exchange of potential and kinetic energy during movement. Bipedality also reduces heat stress by minimizing exposure to solar radiation and increasing convective cooling, an advantage that may have been favored in open environments where hunting occurred. Together, these adaptations support large home ranges and increased mobility, thereby expanding hunting opportunities. Endurance running, refined over evolutionary time, thus represents a locomotor adaptation closely linked to early human hunting strategies.
A major transition in hominin diet from low-quality plant foods to a higher-quality diet that included significant amounts of meat is thought to have occurred around two million years ago. Archaeological evidence supports this shift, as stone tools and butchered animal bones become increasingly common during and after this period. Primitive stone tools and cut-marked bones discovered in Ethiopia and South Africa have been dated to approximately two to two and a half million years ago, aligning with the proposed dietary transition. This temporal association suggests that increased reliance on hunting either accompanied or preceded the expansion of tool use. Anatomical adaptations further support this relationship. Humans possess long, robust thumbs that allow for precision grips, as well as ulnas that lack direct articulation with the carpals, increasing wrist mobility and facilitating tool manipulation. These features strengthen the case for the co-evolution of hunting and tool use in early humans.
The timing of dietary change also bears relevance to the evolution of the human brain. Fossil evidence indicates that significant brain enlargement began around two million years ago, shortly after the appearance of widespread meat consumption and hunting-related artifacts. This sequence suggests that the adoption of a higher-quality diet, supported by hunting, may have provided the energetic surplus necessary to sustain the metabolically costly human brain. In this way, hunting likely contributed indirectly to one of the most defining traits of the human lineage.
Access to higher-quality foods through hunting also had implications for dental and craniofacial morphology. Compared to other primates such as chimpanzees, humans consume a substantially greater proportion of meat, estimated to account for roughly one-third to nearly all of the human diet in some populations, compared to less than five percent in chimpanzees. Because meat is generally softer and less mechanically demanding than fibrous plant material, humans experience reduced chewing demands. On average, humans chew for less than one hour per day, whereas chimpanzees may spend four to six hours chewing daily. Reduced masticatory demands allow for smaller jaws and teeth, traits that distinguish humans from other apes. These anatomical differences are closely associated with access to high-quality foods obtained through hunting.
Despite its evolutionary importance, hunting alone does not fully define what it means to be human. Hunting behaviors, including cooperative group hunts, are observed in other primates such as chimpanzees, indicating that hunting is not uniquely human. Moreover, raw meat is difficult to chew and digest and represents an unpredictable and unstable food source. As such, hunting alone may not sufficiently explain certain human traits, including reduced jaw and tooth size. Food processing behaviors, particularly cooking, likely played a more decisive role. Cooking softens food and increases digestibility, providing a more robust explanation for craniofacial reduction. Additionally, the emergence of agriculture and large-scale cooperation further distinguishes humans by enabling stable resource availability, slower life histories, enhanced cognition through complex social interactions, and a pronounced division of labor.
In summary, hunting was a critical force in shaping human evolution. Although it is far less central to survival today than it was millions of years ago, many modern human traits can be traced back to adaptations that arose in response to hunting. While hunting may not be the single defining feature of humanity, its influence remains deeply embedded in our biology and behavior. Looking ahead, it is worth considering which contemporary developments will one day be viewed as similarly transformative. The answer may lie in our increasingly complex social interactions or in the growing influence of the digital world on human cognition and cooperation.