According to new research by the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC), the accidental ingestion of red ocher pigments as well as seashells played a crucial role in the evolution of the human being, favoring the early development of the brain and its biological adequacy .
These nutrients would have come from the type of diet of humans at that time: seashells, mollusks and other shellfish, were part of the daily diet , all of them with a great contribution in docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), a polyunsaturated essential fatty acid of the series omega-3, which plays an important role in the development of the nervous system, vision and the brain .
“On the one hand, shellfish allowed humans to cope with an adverse climatic period about 200,000 years ago and, on the other, it meant having a reliable food source at a time that coincided with the dispersal of our species along the coast” says Duarte, study leader.
On the other hand, the red ocher pigment was used by our ancestors for ornamental and artistic purposes , so the accidental ingestion of this component could be quite frequent. The red ocher powder provided an extra amount of iron , an essential ingredient for reproductive health and brain development.
The study has been published in the journal Trends in Ecologoy & Evolution and explains that the fact that the combined use of both seashells and red ocher powder has been maintained over the centuries in such disparate cultures of our planet They suggest that they had a positive impact on the evolution of the species.
“The use of red ocher and shells is not restricted to indigenous cultures, but Western women continue to use red ocher and shells, since the pigment is the basis of this color in current cosmetics and they frequently wear ornaments made with shells”, Duarte ends.
