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6 Vegetarianism and Veganism who live near the Arctic Circle, for example, tend to rely to a considerable extent on foods that are available to them, such as whales, narwhal, ringed and bearded seals, caribou, polar bear, muskox, birds and their eggs, and saltwater and freshwa- ter fish. A relatively small proportion of their diet comes from the limited availability of plants, such as berries, grasses, tubers and stems, roots, and seaweed. By contrast, primitive tribes in the interior of Africa have very different diets. The Masai, for example, are widely known for their efficient culture based pri- marily on cattle and goats. The primary constituents of their diet are the foods available from these animals: meat, blood, and milk (also see Campbell 2015). One of the most interesting features of the search for plant- based diets among Stone Age peoples is the difference in mor- phology among ancient and modern versions of many fruits and vegetables. The earliest type of carrot known, for example, had the shape of a thin, forked root, while the first corn plant had barely distinguishable kernels that were “barely edible” (Lewis 2018). Such primitive forms of fruits and vegetables, then, must have had substantially less nutritional value than do their modern counterparts and, therefore, must have been of limited usefulness in a healthful diet. Animal Studies One line of research on human Stone Age diets goes as follows: • Apes and monkeys are the closest evolutionary relatives to humans. • Studying the diets of apes and monkeys, then, may provide a hint as to the dietary patterns of the earliest humans. That line of research goes back many decades and has now produced rather convincing evidence about the diets of wild apes and monkeys. It appears that the vast majority of these primates pursue vegetarian diets, focused primarily on fruits