When you picture a Neanderthal, you probably think of a hairy caveman swinging around a woolly mammoth femur as a club. But researchers studying the eating habits of the ancient primates have found that there wasn't a one-size-fits-all diet for the species — and some individuals were even, it seems, vegetarians.
The scientists reached their conclusions by collecting the DNA of petrified colonies of microbes that once nestled in Neanderthals' teeth:
By harvesting and sequencing that DNA, [the University of Adelaide's Laura] Weyrich has shown that there was no such thing as a typical Neanderthal diet. One individual from Spy cave in Belgium mostly ate meat like woolly rhinoceros and wild sheep, as well as some edible mushrooms. But two individuals who lived in El Sidrón cave in Spain seemed to be entirely vegetarian. The team couldn't find any traces of meat in their diet, which consisted of mushrooms, pine nuts, tree bark, and moss. The Belgian Neanderthals hunted; the Spanish ones foraged."When people talk about the Paleo diet, that's not paleo, that's just non-carb," Weyrich says. "The true paleo diet is eating whatever's out there in the environment." [The Atlantic]
The researchers also found that some Neanderthals even seemed to know how to use healing herbs and plants to treat their ailments. The teeth of one individual contained a parasite that causes diarrhea, but it also contained a mold that produces penicillin and a bark that works as a painkiller.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
"We need to revamp the view of Neanderthals as these meat-eating, club-toting cavemen," said Weyrich. "They had a very good understanding of what foods were available to them."
Continue reading for free
We hope you're enjoying The Week's refreshingly open-minded journalism.
Subscribed to The Week? Register your account with the same email as your subscription.
-
More than 2,000 dead following massive earthquake in MoroccoSpeed Read
-
Mexico's next president will almost certainly be its 1st female president
Speed Read
-
North Korea's Kim to visit Putin in eastern Russia to discuss arms sales for Ukraine war, U.S. says
Speed Read
-
Gabon's military leader sworn in following coup in latest African uprising
Speed Read
-
Nobody seems surprised Wagner's Prigozhin died under suspicious circumstances
Speed Read
-
Western mountain climbers allegedly left Pakistani porter to die on K2
Speed Read
-
'Circular saw blades' divide controversial Rio Grande buoys installed by Texas governor
Speed Read
-
Los Angeles city workers stage 1-day walkout over labor conditions
Speed Read
