Isotope studies reveal Neanderthals were primarily meat eaters
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The collagen from the Neanderthals' bones offers clues to their diet [Credit: © Bocherens] |
The two excavation sites in Belgium that were examined offered the international team of scientists led by the biogeologist from Tübingen a vast array of 45,000 to 40,000 year-old bones of mammoths, woolly rhinoceroses, wild horses, reindeer, European bison, cave hyenas, bears and lions as well as the remains of wolves. The immediate vicinity also revealed the bones of several Neanderthals. Based on isotope studies of the collagen in the bones, the researchers were able to demonstrate that the Neanderthals' diet differed markedly from that of other predatory animals. Collagen is an essential organic component of the connective tissue in bones, teeth, cartilage, tendons, ligaments and the skin.
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The various hunters and their prey animals [Credit: © Bocherens] |
But our extinct relatives did not solely thrive on meat: Studies of the isotope composition of individual amino acids in the collagen offer proof that plant matter constituted approximately 20 percent of their diet. In scientific circles, this evolution-biologically relevant question has been discussed intensively for decades, albeit without leading to any tangible results.
"In this study, we were able for the first time to quantitatively determine the proportion of vegetarian food in the diet of the late Neanderthals. Similar results were found for more recent Stone Age humans," adds Bocherens.
Among others, the scientists from Tübingen hope that their studies will lead to a clearer understanding of what caused the Neanderthals' extinction around 40,000 years ago. "We are accumulating more and more evidence that diet was not a decisive factor in why the Neanderthals had to make room for modern humans," says Bocherens in summary.
Source: Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum [March 11, 2016]
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