Study published in BMC Zoology looks at relationship between bonobo diet and human evolution

BioMed Central reported a study was done with bonobos in the Congo basin to discover how prehistoric humans were able to meet their nutritional needs.

The study found that bonobos looked for aquatic herbs that are rich in iodine, which is critical for brain development and other abilities. The study says this may be how prehistoric humans were able to meet nutritional needs in that area.

“Our results have implications for our understanding of the immigration of prehistoric human populations into the Congo basin," Dr. Gottfried Hohmann of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, the lead author of the study, said in a press release. "Bonobos as a species can be expected to have similar iodine requirements to humans, so our study offers – for the first time – a possible answer on how pre-industrial human migrants may have survived in the Congo basin without artificial supplementation of iodine.”

Hohmann said the report could answer how apes obtain iodine from natural food sources when many other populations in the area are deficient in the nutrient.

The study was published in the open access journal BMC Zoology.