Neanderthal dental tartar reveals plant-based diet and drugs
Source: The Guardian
A diet of pine nuts, mushrooms and moss might sound like modernist cuisine, but it turns out it was standard fare for Spanish Neanderthals. Researchers studying the teeth of the heavy-browed hominids have discovered that while Neanderthals in Belgium were chomping on woolly rhinoceros, those further south were surviving on plants and may even have used naturally occurring painkillers to ease toothache.
...
Writing in the journal Nature, Dobney and an international team of colleagues describe how they analysed ancient DNA from microbes and food debris preserved in the dental tartar, or calculus, of three Neanderthals dating from 42,000 to 50,000 years ago. Two of the individuals were from the El Sidrón cave in Spain while one was from the Spy Cave in Belgium.
The results reveal that northern Neanderthals had a wide-ranging diet, with evidence of a mushroom known as grey shag in their tartar, together with traces of woolly rhinoceros and wild sheep. By contrast Neanderthals from El Sidrón showed no evidence of meat eating instead they appear to have survived on a mixture of forest moss, pine nuts and a mushroom known as split gill.
The difference was further backed up by DNA-based analysis of the diversity and make-up of microbial communities that had lived in the Neanderthals mouths.
...
One of the Spanish Neanderthals is known to have had a painful dental abscess, while analysis of the tartar from the same individual yielded evidence of a parasite known to cause diarrhoea in humans.
To cope, the researchers add, the unfortunate individual might have been self-medicating. While previous work has suggested the El Sidrón Neanderthals might have exploited yarrow and chamomile, the tartar of the unwell individual shows evidence of poplar, which contains the active ingredient of aspirin, salicylic acid, and a species of penicillium fungus, suggesting the Neanderthal might have benefited from a natural source of antibiotics.
Potentially this is evidence of more sophisticated behaviour in terms of knowledge of medicinal plants, said Dobey. The idea that Neanderthals were a bit simple and just dragging their knuckles around is one that has gone a long time ago, certainly in the anthropological world.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/mar/08/neanderthal-dental-tartar-reveals-plant-based-diet-and-drugs
IronLionZion
(45,432 posts)LuvNewcastle
(16,844 posts)Always throwing orgies with their low brows looking around at all of the sights. Even today they still spread their filth.
IronLionZion
(45,432 posts)That sounds like way too much fun
Igel
(35,300 posts)"Hey, man, I'm losing my buzz. Pass the aspirin. Heh-heh."
"That green mold's giving me the munchies."
For those for whom "drugs" must mean only "mind-altering and mood-altering substances." Sort of a narrow definition, but if that's what fits your thinking, go for it.
IronLionZion
(45,432 posts)"Whoa dude, I'm going vegan and gluten free! Far out man"
LeftInTX
(25,259 posts)Yikes!!!
lagomorph777
(30,613 posts)Brush your teeth.
The underwear probably doesn't matter very much.
Warpy
(111,249 posts)I imagine they were like everybody else and just ate whatever they could get that didn't try to eat them first, and some that did. The relatively balmy Iberian Peninsula would likely have yielded more plant foods than territory closer to the glacial boundaries.
Other things we know are that they lived in fixed territories and were ambush hunters, unlike Homo Sap, who was a chase hunter and followed herds of game for long distances.
brewens
(13,575 posts)species that would rival the knowledge of our finest minds. PHD's in wilderness survival. Not all of them but some.
Igel
(35,300 posts)Consider what linguists know and routinely try to pretend isn't true.
Linguists rush to study nearly dead languages, those spoken by a handful of survivors--perhaps 5, perhaps 500. By the time your community's down to 500, much less 5, the range of use is restricted. It's not a vibrant language with a wide range of styles. It's not used outside of the house. Most of the speakers have a restricted code, using a limited set of the grammar that once existed; they have limited vocabulary. Often they're all fluent in at least one other language, and most of the time that other language is dominant and the one they use not just in a majority of places, but in most places. So their phonology and phonetics are also drifting. Even Queen Elizabeth's language has shifted from when she was 30, although she wouldn't acknowledge it, and it's her one real useful language.
With animal populations, islands of populations that are dying out show a lot of genetic drift. They show the influences of what's causing them to die out. This species went extinct there for a reason. The assumption here is that it had nothing to do with diet.
Various reasons have been given for their extinction. The most likely is that they were already under pressure from frequent climate changes as the ice advanced and retreated many times during the last Ice Age. They'd have been a little less resilient with fixed territories. A second is that we absorbed the remaining Neanderthals into our own species, something borne out by DNA analysis. A third theory says the final nail in the species coffin was delivered by a major eruption of the Campi Flegrei which produced climatic fallout sufficient to wipe out the remaining genetically distinct groups.
Diet itself is unlikely to be the culprit. It simply appears that different groups had different diets, just the same as our own species.
Lots of nice theories, aren't there?
The theory I like best is that Homo Sapiens survived because we had dogs.
Okay, that ties in with diet, but -- hey, we had dogs. Good enough for me.
lagomorph777
(30,613 posts)Do we believe Neanderthals lacked dogs?
ColemanMaskell
(783 posts)and looking it up I find there were a number of articles, because there was a book
The Invaders: How Humans and Their Dogs Drove Neanderthals to Extinction
http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674736764
and it is referenced in the National Geographic article (and probably others)
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2015/03/150304-neanderthal-shipman-predmosti-wolf-dog-lionfish-jagger-pogo-ngbooktalk/
ColemanMaskell
(783 posts)"not just in a majority of places, but in most places. " Hunh. Wonder what that means.
tblue37
(65,336 posts)Most is more than merely a majority, though it is also a majority.
ColemanMaskell
(783 posts)Definition of most
1 : greatest in quantity, extent, or degree * the most ability
2 : the majority of * most people
hollowdweller
(4,229 posts)LeftInTX
(25,259 posts)Gotta find a woman, gotta find a woman
Bertha Butt
Hot pants
ProudLib72
(17,984 posts)that Neanderthals needed to consume 5,000 calories a day. I don't see how that is possible on pine nuts, mushrooms, and moss.
meadowlander
(4,394 posts)but you'd go mad picking them all out.
I guess the calorie needs would depend a lot on the lifestyle. Nomadic hunters would burn 5,000 a day, but if you lived in a fixed cave next to, presumably, a very large pine forest and sat around picking out pine nuts all day, and lived in a more moderate climate where you didn't need stacks of firewood year round you wouldn't burn that much.
They must have eaten other things too that aren't detectable in plaque or that the scientist weren't testing for, like wood larvae or worms.
Hekate
(90,648 posts)....to bring home some meat, typically the family/tribe would gorge on this high quality protein and fat, and then resume foraging. This is what modern anthropologists have observed anyway. You need lots of calories for that life, and if most of of the diet is plant based, you just keep moving.
Farming was a tremendous innovation for most people.
ProudLib72
(17,984 posts)in Anthropology class about a tribe in Africa who basically fast for days when they don't have food immediately available. When they decide to go on a hunt, they eat some ridiculous amount of meat, like ten or twelve pounds per person (yes, all within a couple of hours), directly after the hunt to save them from carrying more weight back than they have to. I remember the professor of that class lived with the tribe for a few months, and he developed their eating habits. When he got back to the states, the all-you-can-eat places didn't like that he could consume so much at once.
ColemanMaskell
(783 posts)Ten or twelve pounds is about half of a large holiday turkey, or an entire small holiday turkey. I can believe a person could eat that amount. And, having observed people even slightly, can easily believe they would do so if it meant avoiding work . . .
TexasBushwhacker
(20,175 posts)With the number of calories they needed, they would need fat and protein from something and the most likely candidate is meat. They couldn't eat most beans or grains because they didn't cook.
In any case, the findings of this study were based on 2 subjects, so it's not exactly a huge sample size.
Lucinda
(31,170 posts)littlemissmartypants
(22,632 posts)I'd do it again if I knew how to find it. In about 10 -15 minutes I started to get a sensation I would describe as resembling levitation. I'd definitely do it again.
ColemanMaskell
(783 posts)littlemissmartypants
(22,632 posts)I wasn't entrusted with the details. I sincerely wish I could share the scientific name of the flora. It was root. It was wild. We chewed it. It was fun. I'd do it again. That's all I've got. We need a horticulturist, ColemanMaskell.
littlemissmartypants
(22,632 posts)Thanks for the thread JudyM.
calimary
(81,220 posts)Thanks JudyM!
littlemissmartypants
(22,632 posts)I believe we will be able to learn even more as additional remains are found. There Is so much for us to learn from, yet uncovered ancestral remnants. Advances in science, changes in world topography, climate change advances and exponential population change, we'll see more "brushes with" the remains of our ancestors and their friends, I feel sure. The potential for analysis of these small artifacts, like teeth, are what I would call the high value targets in our ancestral espionage. That's why we see them leading us to the remarkable data sets we have now. It's very exciting. But I am a nerd that loves anthropology, geneology and paleontology.
Great post JudyM.
♡lmsp
calimary
(81,220 posts)I'm one of those nerds, too.
So's my husband. I couldn't have married anybody else but another nerd.
I explain it in terms of the original Star Trek series. The Team Kirk people versus the Team Spock people. I was always Team Spock. From the get-go.
littlemissmartypants
(22,632 posts)JudyM
(29,233 posts)littlemissmartypants
(22,632 posts)I'm glad too!
burrowowl
(17,639 posts)Petrushka
(3,709 posts)Last edited Thu Mar 9, 2017, 03:31 AM - Edit history (1)
BBC Documentary: Neanderthals Human Extinction
10 Amazing Discoveries About Neanderthals
diane in sf
(3,913 posts)And I know I have a high percentage of Neanderthal according to 23andMe.
Bernardo de La Paz
(48,999 posts)JudyM
(29,233 posts)get the red out
(13,462 posts)Calling Rs Neanderthals, they were obviously smarter than Rs.
sarge43
(28,941 posts)There is evidence that they took care of their injured, ill and elderly.
Botany
(70,501 posts)BTW we are all 3% neanderthal
Nitram
(22,791 posts)Nitram
(22,791 posts)vegetarian and others had a diet that consisted mainly of meat. It depended on where they lived and what food was available.
JudyM
(29,233 posts)Nitram
(22,791 posts)JudyM
(29,233 posts)lagomorph777
(30,613 posts)...that will end the Anthropocene Era?
They will puzzle over how an apparently advanced species didn't notice the oceans rising and the mass extinctions of vital species.
Nitram
(22,791 posts)oldcynic
(385 posts)Speaking as a (formerly) red headed, freckled, Scots/Irish/Viking, I'm proud of my heritage. Also, recently read that we acquired certain immunities from our cousins which were advantageous. We owe them a lot.
Wish we could learn more about Denisovans who were apparently interacting with sapiens (so-called) in Asia.
littlemissmartypants
(22,632 posts)I am hopeful we will.
Orsino
(37,428 posts)Ten thousand years later, they were gone. We can suspect that earlier Neanderthals might have had different diets.
JudyM
(29,233 posts)Orsino
(37,428 posts)The species was around for a quarter-million years. Even assuming the diets of these Neanderthals were typical of the time, they don't tell us much about the heyday of these hominids, when they weren't being stressed to the edge of extinction by hungry, hungry Homo sapiens.
Prehistoric people got their calories wherever they could, and when we showed up to swamp them with number, I suspect that changed the diet of the less successful species.
Kimchijeon
(1,606 posts)I am really intrigued, I love learning about ancient human roots, and new findings like this.