One of our ancestors had the brilliant idea to use a rock to bust open the bones.

Wait - I thought hyenas were specifically bone-busting / eating:

"Spotted hyenas are some of Africa's most proficient predators. A frenzied scrum of them can dismantle and devour a 400-pound zebra in 25 minutes. An adult spotted hyena can tear off and swallow 30 or 40 pounds of meat per feeding. Latecomers to a kill use their massive jaw muscles and molars to pulverize the bones for minerals and fatty marrow. Hair and hooves get regurgitated later. "The only thing left is a patch of blood on the ground," says Holekamp." [1]

1 - https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/whos-laughing-...

Another part of that same article, talking about a rare hyena that made it to old age, mentions "She still had perfect teeth, too, since her rank assured her the best cuts of meat, whereas the teeth of lower-ranking animals get chipped and worn from crunching bones", which fits in with the bones not being something that they actually want.

So maybe if an animal is killed by a hyena pack that is small enough for everyone to get a good chunk of meat, they leave the less desired bones behind?

Most carnivores use their teeth to crush bones - lions and hyenas both do it. Heck, we buy doggie treats related to marrow and I have watched my own dogs crush bones to get to the marrow.

Marrow is quite accessible to all, including me - omnomnomnomnom.

Except on Thanksgiving, when they argued over who gets the "Pope's nose."

They tend to splinter, leaving sharp spikes that may hurt the dog's intestines.

Beef and pork bones are better since these don't shatter.

Of course, birds have small bones so dogs can conceivably choke on them when uncooked as well, but it's generally not a huge concern. The splintering however, is a result of cooking[1].

[1] https://www.rspcapetinsurance.org.au/pet-care/pet-ownership/...

I bet more than one factor was at play, and it probably involved some early forms of coordination through communication, the ability to carry things in hands while running, tool use, diet, and selection pressures.

There are restaurants in Seoul with huge cauldrons of the stuff that have been continuously under boil for decades.

The mineral content is so strong that it never seems to ever pick up the salt you can season it with tableside, but it's otherwise almost tasteless.

Unfortunately there's evidence that metals like lead, arsenic, and cadmium are increasingly present in animal feeds. This is especially true in fish feed. Since farmed animals don't typically eat other farmed animals this won't have a biomagnification effect, but it's definitely happening in the wild (hence fish feed made from wild fish being especially contaminated).

The bottom line is that if you eat the bones, it'll dramatically increase the possibility of you metabolizing and storing the contaminants in your own body.

You'll be fine if you have a bit here and there. I personally believe (with no solid evidence) that this is where pasture-raised animals in most areas will be superior to feedlot livestock from who-knows-where. Heavy metals can be everywhere, but we know that they're increasingly present in feedlots. If the farmer near you has pastures, organic certification, and the cows aren't downstream from a pulp mill or landfill, chances are pretty good that it's worth the extra few dollars per pound.

As far as histamine this is one resource: https://help.kettleandfire.com/hc/en-us/articles/36001159707...

In “Guns, Germs, and Steel”, Diamond points out that animals in Africa are particularly vicious and dangerous due to their coevolution with humans. Animals outside of Africa rapidly went extinct as evolved humans spread to the rest of the world, since they didn’t have the same evolutionary opportunity.

I know little about evolutionary biology or zoology, but I’m curious if the modern behavior/capability of animals to eat bone marrow could be the result of evolutionary pressure from coevolution with humans.

Well, humans are nature so..

There might have been a very small, precious window where early hominins had the chance for this discovery because of abundance.

[1] Origins of the Human Predatory Pattern: The Transition to Large-Animal Exploitation by Early Hominins: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/701477?jou...

Also, predators are very intelligent. They can and will break open bones. Domestic dogs do that. Hyenas are renowned for their bone-crushing abilities.

Bone marrow is not the only source of fat. There are plenty of plant-based foods rich in fat

KVJ Bible Psalms: 63:5 (there are many others)

> My soul is feasted as with marrow and fat,

Thoreau in Walden,

> I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, ...

As a child I remember enjoying lamb chops, but specifically remember going straight for the delicious yet delicate marrow. I'd suck it out or poke around the short piece of bone with knife to scrape it all out. My parents would even give me their bones pieces to eat while telling me "that's the best part!". Turns out they weren't kidding.

This was probably a mistake but I love the way it sort of works both ways.