Neanderthals 'enjoyed broad menu'

[YankeyMCC]

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It seems Neanderthals enjoyed a wide range of foods - a much broader menu than had previously been supposed
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By analysing the different types, or isotopes, of atoms incorporated into Neanderthal bones as a result of the foods they ate, it is possible to glimpse something of their lifestyle.

In northern Europe, particularly, it is clear that big game meat - mammoth, deer, horse - dominated the Neanderthal menu.

The isotopes from early modern humans, by comparison, show a much broader range of foods - they were eating small grain, they were fowling and fishing.

This has been used to help explain Neanderthal extinction: H. neanderthalensis may have struggled at times to get the most out of their environment and could be out-competed by moderns.

The latest research, by demonstrating the exploitation of seal and dolphin, shows the extinction story is a little more complicated - at least as far as Gibraltar is concerned, believes Professor Stringer.
Neanderthal tools (NHM)

"We can't generalise to all Neanderthal populations, because the further north you go, away from the coast, you won't have those resources," he told BBC News.
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7630042.stm

There is so much more we are learning about what Neanderthals were like and how they lived, I find this fascinating and I think the more we learn about these beings the more it will shake up people's conceptions about what it means to be human and our relationship and the value of all other living things on the planet.

[Liberal Veteran]

1. They ate "broads"!!! Cannibals!

:D

Interesting article!

[Bonhomme Richard]

2. Palin must be shocked. No Tyrannosaurus Rex on their menu. n/t