Researchers Use AI To Find That Leopards Ate Our Human Ancestors

After training deep learning models, researchers were able to determine that leopards consumed two prehistoric Homo habilis individuals in present-day Tanzania.

While studying the remains of two prehistoric Homo habilis individuals from present-day Tanzania, researchers determined that they were attacked by a large carnivore nearly 2 million years ago. But for a long time, they didn’t know what type of carnivore made the kill. Now, however, experts have used AI to determine the exact predator that consumed our unlucky human ancestors.

The culprit, they say, was a leopard.

Not only did the animal leave deep marks in the individuals’ skulls, but the fact that they were eaten by a leopard also speaks to how long it took for our human ancestors to become predators, and not merely prey.