[wendy1946]

The original diet of modern humans, as per Elaine Morgan, was probably some combination of fruit and shellfish. The original diet of Neanderthals was probably banannas and colobus monkeys as is still the case with chimpanzees.

[billorites]

Gee, I dunno...
Guess I'll go with the monkey.

[SunkenCiv]

That’s obviously false, because regardless of where they are now cultivated, bananas are “native to the tropical region of Southeast Asia. Bananas are likely to have been first domesticated in Papua New Guinea.” Neandertal ate shellfish, seals, dolphins, in addition to mammoths and pretty much anything available to hunt. That list isn’t known to include colobus monkeys, which are native to parts of eastern Africa, and are unknown in Europe (including AFAI’ve ever seen, the fossil record in Europe), which comprises most of the known range of the Neandertal.

Neandertals were NOT misbegotten chimps.

[ElkGroveDan]

The original diet of Neanderthals was probably banannas and colobus monkeys as is still the case with chimpanzees.

I find that hard to believe seeing as how the big hairy Neanderthals lived and evolved in cold environs bereft of bananas and monkeys.