The Biggest Myth About the Neanderthal Diet

[Peter1469]

The Biggest Myth About the Neanderthal Diet

This is much more interesting that current events. What did the Neanderthals eat?

One of the more tenacious misconceptions about Neanderthals is that they were exclusively meat eaters.

Sure, in some of the colder regions of Europe plant food would have been very seasonally limited, so meat was almost certainly a large part of those locals’ diets. But in warmer, more resource-rich regions, their menu would have been more varied; they didn’t just gnaw on mammoth thighs. Neanderthals lived in all sorts of different ecosystems in Europe and the Levant during the more than 200,000 years that the species existed. There was no monolithic Neanderthal diet.


Today, evidence from the Neanderthal alimentary tract (the gastrointestinal system, from the mouth through to the anus) is helping researchers understand exactly what might have been on the menu hundreds of thousands of years ago.


Let’s start at the top end—the mouth. Tooth enamel is the most durable substance in the human body, and Neanderthal teeth have become a rich source of information. Much of this comes from dental calculus—not a bizarre form of tooth-based math, but rather hardened tooth plaque that can contain microscopic plant and microbial remains, and even trace DNA.

Read the rest of the article at the link.

[MisterVeritis]

Some time ago I read an article that speculated the Neanderthals were inefficient in using dietary fats the way humans do. That is why humans are here and the neanderthals are slightly represented in our populations. Not every year was a good crop year.

[Peter1469]

I had not heard that.

[FindersKeepers]

The Biggest Myth About the Neanderthal Diet

This is much more interesting that current events. What did the Neanderthals eat?



Read the rest of the article at the link.

Interesting article. Especially the part about how their rib cages may have been enlarged due to too much protein consumption. Fascinating!

[Peter1469]

Interesting article. Especially the part about how their rib cages may have been enlarged due to too much protein consumption. Fascinating!

Probably had large kidneys.

[donttread]

The Biggest Myth About the Neanderthal Diet

This is much more interesting that current events. What did the Neanderthals eat?



Read the rest of the article at the link.

this makes great sense. We know about the great variations in lifestyle and even body type among homo sapien tribes but have tended to look at neanderthal as one mass group without distinctions.

[Mister D]

Probably had large kidneys.

It turns out that high protein intake has no adverse effects on kidney function in people without a preexisting kidney disease.