Researchers - and a growing Paleo sector - have long debated the truth about early ancestor diets, but this study from the Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution and Paleoenvironment at the University of Tübingen in Germany is the first to nail down precise percentages.
Science Daily reports that the findings support earlier research that at least some paleo diets relied heavily on red meats; included some fruits, vegetables and other plant materials; and were mostly, if not completely, without seafood. The latest studies are published in the Journal of Human Evolution and the journal Quaternary International.
"We have taken a detailed look at the Neanderthals' diet," co-author HervéBocherens of the Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment at the University of Tübingen said in a press release.
He added that he and his team also looked at the diet of Stone Age Homo sapiens. In the process, they were able to determine that the extinct relatives of today's humans primarily fed on large herbivorous mammals, such as mammoths and woolly rhinoceroses.
They also looked at the diet of modern humans from the same time period, 45,000-40,000 years ago. The animals included mammoths, woolly rhinoceroses, wild horses, reindeer, European bison, cave hyenas, bears, lions and wolves.
"Previously, it was assumed that the Neanderthals utilized the same food sources as their animal neighbors," Bocherens said. "However, our results show that all predators occupy a very specific niche, preferring smaller prey as a rule, such as reindeer, wild horses or steppe bison while the Neanderthals primarily specialized on the large plant-eaters such as mammoths and woolly rhinoceroses."
Anthropologists have found weapons, like spears, associated with Neanderthals, who must have had a very organized, group approach to hunting such large prey.
While they clearly loved their meat, Neanderthals were also eating fruits, vegetables and other plants, too.
According to Breaking World News, this is the latest evidence suggesting that Neanderthals were omnivorous. This is a recent shift: Archaeologists formerly characterized Neanderthals as carnivorous.
Neanderthals, or Homo neanderthalensis, shared a common ancestor with us Homo sapiens. Some of us even have Neanderthal ancestors and although this work cannot give us any direct information about early Homo sapiens, it may help us understand changes both species experienced in their evolutionary histories.
