Roasted bone marrow

Humans widely use the bone marrow of animals as food. It consists of yellow marrow contained in long bones. There is also red marrow, which contains more nutrients than yellow marrow. It may be found in bone-in cuts of meat purchased from a butcher or supermarket. Many cultures have used bone marrow as food throughout history. Some anthropologists believe that early humans were scavengers rather than hunters in some regions of the world. Marrow would have been a useful food source for tool-using hominids, who were able to crack open the bones of carcasses left by apex predators such as lions and wolves. Stones shaped like hand-sized balls have been revealed as tools used for cracking open bones to get access to the marrow, and go back almost 2 million years. Evidence for storage of bones containing bone marrow for later consumption has been found in the Qesem cave. European diners in the 18th century used a marrow scoop (or marrow spoon), often of silver and with a long, thin bowl, as a table implement for removing marrow from a bone. Bone marrow was also used in various preparations, such as pemmican. Bone marrow's popularity as a food is now relatively limited in the western world, but it remains in use in some gourmet restaurants, and is popular among food enthusiasts.