Neandertals' Main Food Source Was Definitely Meat

EurekAlert! ^ | February 18, 2019 | Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology

[mountainlion]

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.

[Bonemaker]

[Openurmind]

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.

[Joe 6-pack]

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.

[Sirius Lee]

A fish is a lot easier to catch than a mammoth.

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

[Openurmind]

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

[Red Badger]

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.....................

[Bonemaker]

[Openurmind]

Monkeys still do it...

https://youtu.be/HwpoaCkQAkI

[Red Badger]

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

[Openurmind]

Yep... See #24. :)

[SunkenCiv]

...and for dessert, lady fingers!

[SunkenCiv]

Same here.

[SunkenCiv]

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.

[sparklite2]

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

[SunkenCiv]

:^)

[sparklite2]

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

[blam]

"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

[9YearLurker]

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

[sparklite2]

Red beans and jalapeno cornbread? Yummers!