Neanderthals ate veggies
A US study found that Neanderthals, prehistoric cousins of humans,
ate grains and vegetables as well as meat, cooking them over fire in the
same way homo sapiens did.
The new research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy
of Sciences (PNAS) challenges a prevailing theory that Neanderthals'
over reliance on meat contributed to their extinction around 30,000
years ago.
Researchers found grains from numerous plants, including a type of
wild grass, as well as traces of roots and tubers, trapped in plaque
buildup on fossilized Neanderthal teeth unearthed in northern Europe and
Iraq.
Many of the particles "had undergone physical changes that matched
experimentally-cooked starch grains, suggesting that Neanderthals
controlled fire much like early modern humans," PNAS said in a
statement.
Stone artifacts have not provided evidence that Neanderthals used
tools to grind plants, suggesting they did not practice agriculture, but
the new research indicates they cooked and prepared plants for eating,
it said.
AFP |