Earlier thought on Neanderthal eating habits might be wrong

A recent discovery was made that is altering the view of the Neanderthal eating habits. It turns out that some Neanderthals actually cooked veggies for consumption, rather than eating primarily meat as was previously held. Ancient humans and related species aren’t thoroughly understood, however eating habits gives incredible insight into daily life. Back in a time when you could not take out a pay day loan and go out to dinner, there were only so many choices for food. Resource for this article – Neanderthal diet more sophisticated than previously thought by MoneyBlogNewz.

Being like a Neanderthal with more veggies

The Neanderthal diet was found to be much more than believed recently. This is what USA Today reports. The Neanderthal remains in Belgium and in the Shanidar Cave in Iraq were analyzed much more closely. Vegetable was stuck within the teeth of some. They found vegetables like date palms and grass seeds. Legumes like beans and lentils were found as well. Before civilization came about, wheat grass shots were already used. All the findings from Alison Brooks, Dolores Piperno and Amanda Henry could be published. The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences will be publishing them. The findings challenge the notion that Neanderthal man was primarily a meat eater. Neanderthal, and other forerunners to modern man, are found to be far more advanced than formerly assumed.

Fascinating times for paleoanthropologists

There have been a lot of discoveries taking place with paleoanthropology lately which is the study of ancient man. A set of teeth was found in the Qesem Cave which is a site in Israel. The teeth found at Qesem may date to 400,000 years ago, which is almost twice as old as the oldest remains of homo sapiens. However, the find has yet to be verified as being from the family homo sapiens or as belonging to homo sapiens sapiens — modern humans.

Neanderthal evolution

The world that Neanderthal and early man inhabited was far different from our own. It’s expected that Neanderthals do not come from the same lineal ancestor that humans are from and are more like a cousin. They’re also called Homo Neanderthalensis. We speculate as to the history of Earth right now. These discoveries help us get closer to the truth.

Information from

USA Today

content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2010/12/study-finds-that-neanderthals-cooked-and-ate-their-vegetables/1

PNAS

pnas.org/content/early/2010/12/17/1016868108.abstract