Neanderthals

[wjfox]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12071424




Neanderthals cooked and ate vegetables

By Pallab Ghosh
Science correspondent, BBC News

Neanderthals cooked and ate plants and vegetables, a new study of Neanderthal remains reveals.

Researchers in the US have found grains of cooked plant material in their teeth.

The study is the first to confirm that the Neanderthal diet was not confined to meat and was more sophisticated than previously thought.

The research has been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The popular image of Neanderthals as great meat eaters is one that has up until now been backed by some circumstantial evidence. Chemical analysis of their bones suggested they ate little or no vegetables.

This perceived reliance on meat had been put forward by some as one of the reasons these humans become extinct as large animals such as mammoths declined.

But a new analysis of Neanderthal remains from across the world has found direct evidence that contradicts the chemical studies. Researchers found fossilised grains of vegetable material in their teeth and some of it was cooked.

Although pollen grains have been found before on Neanderthal sites and some in hearths, it is only now there is clear evidence that plant food was actually eaten by these people.

Professor Alison Brooks, from George Washington University, told BBC News: "We have found pollen grains in Neanderthal sites before but you never know whether they were eating the plant or sleeping on them or what.

"But here we have a case where a little bit of the plant is in the mouth so we know that the Neanderthals were consuming the food."

More like us

One question raised by the study is why the chemical studies on Neanderthal bones have been wide of the mark. According to Professor Brooks, the tests were measuring proteins levels, which the researchers assumed came from meat.

"We've tended to assume that if you have a very high value for protein in the diet that must come from meat. But... it's possible that some of the protein in their diet was coming from plants," she said.

This study is the latest to suggest that, far from being brutish savages, Neanderthals were more like us than we previously thought.

[VelesHomais]

Just a year ago I was sitting in a Physical Anthropology class being told that Homo Neanderthalensis only consumed meat. Fascinating stuff. This adds even more mystery to their disappearance. I wonder how old are the sites in question, if they're from the later period this could be yet another example of cultural intermixing with Homo sapiens, as was earlier found to be true from the change in tool design. Neanderthals were trying to copy the tools made by modern humans but they were still coming up crude and less efficient. Perhaps they also witnessed our ancestors eating vegetables and started adopting that behavior as well. Overall this supports the general perspective on their extinction that it was a very gradual, slow process, taking thousands of years, they knew that Homo sapiens were more successful and were desperately adopting their/our ways to, perhaps, replicate that success.

[mexico86]

Will I be the first to make the well worn but amusing joke about having known for years already that chavs sometimes eat vegetables.

[VelesHomais]

edit

[EuxTex]

Originally Posted by VelesHomais

This adds even more mystery to their disappearance.

Either to ugly to screw or they all became homosexual.

[wjfox]

Originally Posted by mexico86

Will I be the first to make the well worn but amusing joke about having known for years already that chavs sometimes eat vegetables.

Racist.

[alonzo-ny]

Yeah, please don't insult the Neanderthals.

[mexico86]

Originally Posted by mexico86

Will I be the first to make the well worn but amusing joke about having known for years already that chavs sometimes eat vegetables.

You mean chavs are cannibals? (vegetables eating vegetables) haaaa haahha hhhh ah aha ha ha ah a

[mexico86]

Originally Posted by mexico86

You mean chavs are cannibals? (vegetables eating vegetables) haaaa haahha hhhh ah aha ha ha ah a

fuck you Mexico86, that's insulting to veg

[ranatunga]

is it true that european people are most closely related to Neanderthals? followed my middle easterners, south asians, east asians then africans, who probably have very little Neanderthal gene

[Republica]

oh

[The Sage]

Well they've got one up on me then.

[Tubeman]

Just like Homo Sapiens I presume their diet depended on where they lived and what food was available to them.

Some Neanderthals may well have eaten little but meat, other might have eaten more veg, others mostly fish... Just like us depending on where in the world we live.

Can humans survive healthily on just meat, by the way?

[gothicform]

Originally Posted by Tubeman

Just like Homo Sapiens I presume their diet depended on where they lived and what food was available to them.

Some Neanderthals may well have eaten little but meat, other might have eaten more veg, others mostly fish... Just like us depending on where in the world we live.

Can humans survive healthily on just meat, by the way?

no, they can't but that's not relevant given how long they would have lived. interesting fact for you is that the human appendix exists to digest roots and bark, something we don't eat any more. those with appendicitis tend to have had lower fibre diets though but it shows you from an evolutionary perspective our diets have changed faster than our bodies and we are supposed to eat those to stay healthy. a word of warning, if you've had your appendix removed then having a poo after eating some bark might hurt a bit.

[mexico86]

Originally Posted by Tubeman

Just like Homo Sapiens I presume their diet depended on where they lived and what food was available to them.

Some Neanderthals may well have eaten little but meat, other might have eaten more veg, others mostly fish... Just like us depending on where in the world we live.

Can humans survive healthily on just meat, by the way?

This makes a lot of sense to me too. In fact, it is not so surprising that neanderthals ate similar things to homo sapiens, considering how similar the two species are/were.

[Tubeman]

Originally Posted by gothicform

no, they can't but that's not relevant given how long they would have lived. interesting fact for you is that the human appendix exists to digest roots and bark, something we don't eat any more. those with appendicitis tend to have had lower fibre diets though but it shows you from an evolutionary perspective our diets have changed faster than our bodies and we are supposed to eat those to stay healthy. a word of warning, if you've had your appendix removed then having a poo after eating some bark might hurt a bit.

So can the appendix actually carry out any useful function for us?

I just thought is was a vestige like those minute legs on snakes.

[Tubeman]

Aha, after extensive and scientific research (1 minute on Wikipedia) it's suggested that the appendix may act as a 'safe haven' culture of our digestive bacteria to allow re-colonisation of our system if it's been ravaged by infection / diarrhoea... Makes sense... So I don't think it's where bark gets diverted to when we eat it goth...

[gothicform]

Originally Posted by Tubeman

Aha, after extensive and scientific research (1 minute on Wikipedia) it's suggested that the appendix may act as a 'safe haven' culture of our digestive bacteria to allow re-colonisation of our system if it's been ravaged by infection / diarrhoea... Makes sense... So I don't think it's where bark gets diverted to when we eat it goth...

no?

http://science.jrank.org/pages/2077/...-Appendix.html

and caused by lack of fibre?

http://www.articlesbase.com/medicine...re-705993.html

guess what is common in bark and roots??? fibre!

anyway you should know this from charles darwin who used it as proof of evolution between humans and primates.

[Tubeman]

Oh I know what the appendix is a vestige of, I'm just querying whether it performs any actual digestion

[gothicform]

Originally Posted by Tubeman

Oh I know what the appendix is a vestige of, I'm just querying whether it performs any actual digestion

no one knows. lol. people are still arguing over it in fact. it definitely appears to be affected by the lack of bran fibre in your diet (which is what it was originally designed to digest) so there is still something going on.