Neanderthals ate plants, not just meat, study of oldest human faeces suggests
Contrary to long-held view, new study says Neanderthals atemore than just meat
As gross as it sounds, samples of the world's oldest known human faeces are offering scientists new insight into the gastronomic behaviour of our extinct, meat-loving cousins, the Neanderthals.
In a study published in the journal , researchers say an analysis of 50,000-year-old coprolites discovered in Spain suggests Neanderthals supplemented their carnivorous diet with a "significant" amount of vegetation.
The study is the latest to argue against the long-held view that Neanderthals ate large, land-roaming herbivores exclusively and ignored plants and fish.
Last year, another group of researchers examined the tartar on Neanderthal teeth and concluded it showed evidence of plant consumption.
In this latest study, researchers scraped faeces remnants from the floor of Neanderthal living areas at the El Salt archaeological site in Alicante, Spain, and tested for specific biomarkers.
Using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, researchers studied the powdered samples for traces of stanols and sterols, lipids that are formed in the intestines when gut bacteria acts on plant and animal matter.
The authors said that samples taken from five different areas suggested that Neanderthals predominantly consumed meat, but also had significant plant intake.
"This wasn't a complete surprise," said lead study author Ainara Sistiaga, an organic chemistry and Palaeolithic archaeology researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "Neanderthals are primates after all. Our findings are solid evidence of a dietary component - plants - that so far has been missing in the fossil record."
The idea that Neanderthals strayed from a strict meat-eating diet, and were even more sophisticated than we give them credit for, is somewhat controversial.
After authors of the dental study argued that Neanderthals may have cooked foods and used plants as medicinal remedies, other researchers countered that the substances found in Neanderthal teeth were probably just the stomach contents of animals they had consumed.
Sistiaga said it was possible, though unlikely, that the faecal biomarkers she and her colleagues found were solely the result of Neanderthals eating the stomach contents of their prey.
"In any case, this would represent another way to eat plants," she said.
Biomarkers weren't the only things researchers found. They said they also observed objects that resembled nematode eggs. This suggests that the owners of the faecal samples may have suffered from intestinal worms.
