Image courtesy of www.themandus.org
Posted on 03/03/2012 2:32:00 PM PST by SunkenCiv
Researchers from George Washington University and the Smithsonian Institution have discovered evidence to debunk the theory that Neandertals' disappearance was caused in part by a deficient diet -- one that lacked variety and was overly reliant on meat. After discovering starch granules from plant food trapped in the dental calculus on 40-thousand-year-old Neandertal teeth, the scientists believe that Neandertals ate a wide variety of plants and included cooked grains as part of a more sophisticated, diverse diet similar to early modern humans...
The discovery of starch granules in the calculus on Neandertal teeth provides direct evidence that they made sophisticated, thoughtful food choices and ate more nutrient-rich plants, for example date palms, legumes and grains such as barley. Until now, anthropologists have hypothesized that Neandertals were outlived by early modern humans due in part to the former's primitive, deficient diet, with some scientists arguing Neandertals' diets were specialized for meat-eating. As such, during major climate swings Neandertals could be outcompeted by early humans who incorporated diverse plant foods available in the local environment into their diets.
Henry, Brooks and Piperno's discovery suggests otherwise. The researchers discovered starch granules in dental calculus, which forms when plaque buildup hardens, on the fossilized teeth of Neandertal skeletons excavated from Shanidar Cave in Iraq and Spy Cave in Belgium. Starch granules are abundant in most human plant foods, but were not known to survive on fossil teeth this old until this study. The researchers' findings indicate that Neandertals' diets were more similar to those of early humans than originally thought. The researchers also determined from alterations they observed in the starch granules that Neandertals prepared and cooked starch-rich foods to make them taste better and easier to digest.
(Excerpt) Read more at smithsonianscience.org ...
That “halfway between man and chimp” claim is complete BS, and appeared in just one — non-scientific — source, a tabloid in India.
It pays to keep up.
"Several lines of evidence indicate that the 65,250 base pairs of hominid sequence so far identified in the library are of Neanderthal origin, the strongest being the ascertainment of sequence identities between Neanderthal and chimpanzee at sites where the human genomic sequence is different...."
Image courtesy of www.themandus.org
Most scholars prior to now have assumed neanderthals looked more or less like us while at the same time recognizing that their DNA was substantially different. Danny Vendramini appears to have resolved the misconception.
Horse Sh**. You might start reading real science instead of BS science. Half way makes no sense, since Chimps share 98.5% of Human DNA, what would half way be between 98.5 and 100%? 99%? 99.5?
Put it this way: There is about twice as much difference between chimps and us as there is between chimps and Neanderthals.
In brain size Neanderthals were comparable to modern humans or even slightly larger--the Neanderthals ranged from 1300 to 1700 milliliters whereas modern humans range from 1200 to 1400.
There is a recent scholarly (but very readable) book on the Neanderthals, originally published in German in 2005, English translation 2009: The Neanderthals, by Friedemann Schrenk and Stephanie Mu+ller, translated by Phyllis G. Jestice, published by Routledge (paperback ISBN 978-0-415-42420-9). No National Geographic-style color photos but lots of interesting black-and-white drawings and maps--a very interesting book with up-to-date information.
The Neander Valley, by the way, is named for Joachim Neumann, a Bremen theologian and hymn-writer of the 17th century (composer of "Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of Creation"). Neumann means "new man" and "Neander" was coined from the Greek roots neo- and andr- meaning "new man."
“Neanderthal” means Neander Valley auf Deutsch... Basically just a place name.
I was just surprised to learn that the name was fairly recent and its origin was known--many European placenames are so old that nothing is known of how the name originated.
What a great list. Thanks.
KEYWORDS: neandertal; neandertals; neanderthal; neanderthals
It was amusing to view the nuttery from varmintspam, who was finally banned, probably for something other than that comic book garbage he was continually pushing in every last Neandertal topic on FR.
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