2026年8月27日，西班牙国家研究委员会进化生物学研究所与庞培法布拉大学联合在《Science Advances》2026年第12卷第23期发表了一项关于古代欧洲人有限食用昆虫模式的基因组证据研究 1。该研究由Pablo Librado主导，Manuel Piñero担任第一作者 1。研究人员通过分析古代人类牙齿牙结石和DNA，重建了数千年来人类食用昆虫的模式 1。研究团队共分析了745个可追溯至33000年前的解剖学现代人类牙结石样本 1。
研究结果显示，北欧欧亚大陆的现代人类仅偶尔食用昆虫，而尼安德特人可能更规律地食用昆虫 1。在尼安德特人的牙结石中，昆虫DNA含量与西非黑猩猩相当，其中最常见的昆虫痕迹来自双翅目，尤其是蚊子DNA 1。此外，北欧欧亚人群由于几丁质酶基因发生突变，导致其消化昆虫外骨骼的能力降低，这一模式已持续约9000年，可追溯至农业兴起时期 1。相比之下，靠近热带地区的人群更可能保留有助于消化昆虫外骨骼的基因变异，即与几丁质酶酸（CHIA）和几丁二糖酶（CTBS）高表达相关的基因变异 1。
Researchers from the Institute of Evolutionary Biology, a joint institute of the Spanish National Research Council and Pompeu Fabra University, have reconstructed the patterns of human insect consumption over thousands of years by analyzing ancient dental calculus and DNA 1. The study, led by Pablo Librado with Manuel Piñero as the first author, was published in Volume 12, Issue 23 of Science Advances on August 27, 2026 1. The findings reveal that the limited consumption of insects by modern humans in northern Eurasia is a pattern that has persisted for approximately 9,000 years, dating back to the emergence of agriculture 1.
To reach these conclusions, the team analyzed 745 dental calculus samples from anatomically modern humans dating back as far as 33,000 years 1. The research indicates that while northern Eurasian populations possess mutations in the chitinase gene that reduce their ability to digest insect exoskeletons, populations living closer to the tropics are more likely to carry genetic variants associated with the high expression of acidic chitinase (CHIA) and chitobiosidase (CTBS) 1. In contrast to modern humans in these regions, Neanderthals likely consumed insects more regularly, with the insect DNA content in their dental calculus being comparable to that found in West African chimpanzees 1. Furthermore, the most common insect traces identified in Neanderthal dental calculus originated from Diptera, particularly mosquito DNA 1.
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