Zinc enters the body with food and is stored as a major trace element in bioapatite, a mineral
The presence of zinc in a certain ratio alsoallows you to establish whether the animal was a herbivore or carnivore. Thus, zinc isotopes can serve as a new tool for studying the diet of fossil humans and other mammals.
Researchers used a new method to studyfossils found in the Tam Hey Marklo cave in northeastern Laos. The study showed that the diet of the mammals to which the remains belonged was almost no different from the diet of modern representatives of the same species.
The discovery will allow not only to determine the diet of mammals and ancient people with high accuracy, but also expand the time frame during which the determination of the diet will become possible, up to 100 thousand years.
Previously, scientists discovered the oldest petrified food in Australia. The age of fossils in the form of charcoal is 65 thousand years.