The primates in Pineda-Munoz and Alroy (2014) dataset are specialized plant-eaters. There is little argument that meat was not the main food of early hominins, but it appears that at least 3.2 Mya, australopiths may have increased the portion of meat in their diet.

The appearance of the genus Homo was associated with a gradual increase of the animal component in the diet. Early Homo has initially expanded the diet from major reliance on plant foods to scavenging of bone marrow and brains and meat. Consistent signs of increased concentration on animal-sourced foods appear in H. erectus .

Most of the evidence that has been collected and analyzed in this article points to a carnivore trophic level for humans during most of the Paleolithic, starting with H. erectus.