Israeli researchers have advanced a new perspective on the role of megafauna, particularly proboscideans like mammoths and elephants, in shaping human evolution over the past two million years. In a recent series of studies, scholars Ran Barkai and Avi Ben-Dor argue that early humans actively targeted large prehistoric animals not only for their meat but primarily for their fat, contending that fat was a more crucial and sustainable nutritional resource than lean meat.

Their thesis challenges prevailing views within paleoanthropology that depict early hominins as dietary generalists who opportunistically consumed a variety of animals without a particular focus on megafauna. Barkai and Ben-Dor maintain that while early humans hunted a broad spectrum of prey, large animals represented high-value targets due to their fat content, crucial for caloric intake and avoiding nitrogen poisoning caused by excessive protein consumption.

The debate over the significance and frequency of megafauna hunting has long been contentious. Critics of the megafauna-centered model, including anthropologist Eugene Morin of Trent University, acknowledge that early humans hunted proboscideans but question whether these large animals constituted a staple part of their diet or were hunted sporadically at best. Morin and others stress the considerable risks and energy costs associated with hunting massive, dangerous animals, noting that smaller game tends to provide a better energy return relative to effort.

This scientific disagreement intensified following the March 2026 publication by Barkai and Ben-Dor, titled “Paleolithic Dietary Flexibility? Methodological Considerations in Analogy-Based Reconstructions of Paleolithic Energetic Returns.” The paper critiques previous studies and promotes a methodological shift away from ethnographic analogies toward direct archaeological evidence. In response, several anthropologists, including Douglas Bird of Penn State University and Morin, published counterarguments defending the concept that dietary flexibility was a defining characteristic of early humans.

Barkai and Ben-Dor rebut these criticisms by asserting that ethnographic comparisons with recent hunter-gatherer societies—many living in ecosystems already altered by agriculture or animal domestication—are unreliable proxies for understanding Paleolithic diets. They emphasize archaeological finds, such as stone-tool cut marks on proboscidean bones dating back nearly two million years in Africa, and sites demonstrating Neanderthal hunting of elephants, as concrete proof of early human engagement with megafauna.

Recent genetic research adds further support to the theory that mammoths played a significant role in Paleolithic subsistence strategies. A study analyzing ancient DNA from mammoth remains suggests that a majority of individuals found in human-associated contexts were female, smaller in size, and therefore potentially easier to hunt within herd structures. This finding underpins the argument that mammoths were systematically targeted by prehistoric hunters, at least in some regions.

Despite evidence of early human predation on megafauna, the question of whether such hunting caused large-scale extinctions remains debated. Barkai and Ben-Dor argue that human expansion corresponded with significant declines in the size and diversity of large animal populations, including the disappearance of elephants from the Levant approximately 400,000 years ago and the broader Late Quaternary extinction events occurring within the last 50,000 years. Conversely, scholars skeptical of this view note that on continents, sustained hunting pressure may not have been sufficient alone to drive such extinctions, citing examples like the persistence of bison in North America despite millennia of native hunting.

The debate encompasses broader implications for understanding human evolution, with Barkai and Ben-Dor proposing that the reliance on megafaunal fat shaped not only dietary strategies but also social, technological, and cognitive developments. They suggest that as large game became scarcer, humans adapted their hunting techniques and material culture to exploit smaller, leaner animals, while the search for high-calorie fat continued to influence evolutionary pressures.

While consensus remains elusive, early humans’ consumption of mammoths and other giant animals is well established. Ongoing research continues to refine the understanding of how these prehistoric giants influenced human survival, adaptation, and ecological impact throughout the Pleistocene and into the modern era.