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Neandertals' Main Food Source Was Definitely Meat
EurekAlert! ^ | February 18, 2019 | Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology

Posted on 02/20/2019 10:17:16 AM PST by SunkenCiv

Neandertals' ...are traditionally considered carnivores and hunters of large mammals, but this hypothesis has recently been challenged by numerous pieces of evidence of plant consumption. Ancient diets are often reconstructed using nitrogen isotope ratios, a tracer of the trophic level, the position an organism occupies in a food chain. Neandertals are apparently occupying a high position in terrestrial food chains, exhibiting slightly higher ratios than carnivores (like hyenas, wolves or foxes) found at the same sites. It has been suggested that these slightly higher values were due to the consumption of mammoth or putrid meat. And we also know some examples of cannibalism for different Neandertal sites.

Paleolithic modern humans, who arrived in France shortly after the Neandertals had disappeared, exhibit even higher nitrogen isotope ratios than Neandertals. This is classically interpreted as the signature of freshwater fish consumption. Fishing is supposed to be a typical modern human activity, but again, a debate exists whether or not Neandertals were eating aquatic resources. When Klervia Jaouen, a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and first author of the study, and collaborators discovered high nitrogen isotope ratios in the collagen of two Neandertals falling in the range of modern humans, they wondered whether this could a signature of regular fish consumption...

...a novel isotope technique. Compound-specific isotope analyses (CSIA) allow to separately analyze the amino acids contained in the collagen. Some of the amino acid isotope compositions are influenced by environmental factors and the isotope ratios of the food eaten. Other amino acid isotope ratios are in addition influenced by the trophic level. The combination of these amino acid isotope ratios allows to decipher the contribution of the environment and the trophic level to the final isotope composition of the collagen.

(Excerpt) Read more at eurekalert.org ...


TOPICS: History; Science; Travel
KEYWORDS: aminoacids; carnivorous; collagen; dietandcuisine; farmers; geicogastronomy; godsgravesglyphs; isotoperatios; klerviajaouen; maxplanckinstitute; meat; meatmeatmeat; neandertal; neandertals; neanderthal; neanderthals; nephilim; nitrogen; omniverous
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To: Buttons12
A fish is a lot easier to catch than a mammoth.

I think that they did not catch a mammoth but vice versa. A fish would be easier to get away form.

21 posted on 02/20/2019 10:51:31 AM PST by mountainlion (Live well for those that did not make it back.)
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To: SunkenCiv

22 posted on 02/20/2019 10:52:10 AM PST by Bonemaker (invictus maneo)
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To: Red Badger

Overcoming Hydrophobia. But I think these common assumptions about early man are wrong. I don’t think we give them enough credit and they did not fear water at all. I think they were floating a long time before we think they were.


23 posted on 02/20/2019 10:53:15 AM PST by Openurmind
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To: Red Badger

I eat a LOT of smoked oysters; they are relatively cheap, filling little protein bombs for a low carb diet, but yes, I often wonder about how they came to be part of the human diet. First, to the casual observer, they look like an underwater rock. You have to crack them open to see what’s inside. Presumably some early human noticed some other creature cracking them open to eat them, and figured they’d give it a try.


24 posted on 02/20/2019 10:55:30 AM PST by Joe 6-pack (Qui me amat, amat et canem meum.)
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To: Buttons12
A fish is a lot easier to catch than a mammoth.

It's true! Even a neandertard can do it.


25 posted on 02/20/2019 10:55:45 AM PST by Sirius Lee (In God We Trust, In Trump We MAGA)
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To: Buttons12

The debate is based on an assumption that all early hominids were hydrophobic. I think it is a wrong assumption.


26 posted on 02/20/2019 10:55:49 AM PST by Openurmind
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To: Openurmind

Many oysters are exposed during low tides so they wouldn’t have had to dive to get them.

Same with clams, which many can be dug up at low tide from the sands.....................


27 posted on 02/20/2019 10:57:21 AM PST by Red Badger (We are headed for a Civil War. It won't be nice like the last one....................)
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To: Slyfox

28 posted on 02/20/2019 10:57:40 AM PST by Bonemaker (invictus maneo)
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To: Joe 6-pack

Monkeys still do it...

https://youtu.be/HwpoaCkQAkI


29 posted on 02/20/2019 10:58:03 AM PST by Openurmind
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To: Joe 6-pack

See #27..................


30 posted on 02/20/2019 10:58:10 AM PST by Red Badger (We are headed for a Civil War. It won't be nice like the last one....................)
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To: Red Badger

Yep... See #24. :)


31 posted on 02/20/2019 10:59:58 AM PST by Openurmind
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To: gov_bean_ counter
...and for dessert, lady fingers!

32 posted on 02/20/2019 11:01:22 AM PST by SunkenCiv (and btw -- https://www.gofundme.com/for-rotator-cuff-repair-surgery)
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To: 9YearLurker
Same here.

33 posted on 02/20/2019 11:01:57 AM PST by SunkenCiv (and btw -- https://www.gofundme.com/for-rotator-cuff-repair-surgery)
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To: Buttons12
Teach a man to fish, and he'll spend the rest of his life in a rowboat. Teach a man to kill a mammoth, and the whole tribe eats for like six months.

34 posted on 02/20/2019 11:03:40 AM PST by SunkenCiv (and btw -- https://www.gofundme.com/for-rotator-cuff-repair-surgery)
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To: 9YearLurker

You would find Neanderthals humanistic and appealing,
well, except maybe for their New Jersey accents.


35 posted on 02/20/2019 11:05:05 AM PST by sparklite2 (Don't mind me. I'm just a contrarian.)
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To: Openurmind
:^)

36 posted on 02/20/2019 11:06:04 AM PST by SunkenCiv (and btw -- https://www.gofundme.com/for-rotator-cuff-repair-surgery)
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To: budj

“What’s for supper, Oona?”
“It’s the MEAT!”
“You watch too much TV.”


37 posted on 02/20/2019 11:06:36 AM PST by sparklite2 (Don't mind me. I'm just a contrarian.)
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To: SunkenCiv
"Great, now I'm hungry."

I'm in the middle of eating my 'vegetable plate' lunch.

* Turnips
* Cabbage
* Red beans/rice
* Fried okra
* Cole slaw
* Jalapeno corn bread
* Milk (1%)

Mmmmmmm

38 posted on 02/20/2019 11:07:28 AM PST by blam
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To: sparklite2

Nah, the Neanderthals were more the northern European fighter types. Think Vikings and fighting Irish.


39 posted on 02/20/2019 11:11:47 AM PST by 9YearLurker
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To: blam

Red beans and jalapeno cornbread? Yummers!


40 posted on 02/20/2019 11:13:34 AM PST by sparklite2 (Don't mind me. I'm just a contrarian.)
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