From club - exert carnivorous troglodyte to harvesterscooking barley porridge , the swinish image sure as shooting has come a longsighted path . Now , anew study of ancient fecesyields the first direct evidence that they had varied diet : inwardness sonorous yes , but with plant life tissue from tubers , berry , and en on the side .
Previous oeuvre with isotopes of osseous tissue fragments , odontiasis analyses , and flora microfossils discovered in boorish teeth have suggest that our prehistorical cousins exhaust an assortment of foods . But maybe the plants came from the abdomen content of their prey , or perhaps the plant got stuck when they used their tooth as dick for bite . For instance , just last calendar week , we get wind that Neanderthals may haveused their teeth as a “ third hand ” for gripping objects , leave their two hands free .
So , a team led by Ainara Sistiaga from theUniversity of La Lagunain Spain bet for a more direct approach . Working in El Salt in Alicante , Spain – a Middle Paleolithic Neanderthal site dating back 50,000 geezerhood – the researchers identified human faecal continue among depart layer of soil and ash . They used a technique usually reserved for observe bowel bacterium ( and hence faeces ) in drinking water .
Poo is “ the perfect evidence,”Sistiaga explain to BBC . “ If you receive it in the fecal matter , you are sure that it was ingested . ” They scoop up up about 10 grams of the sediment , bray it into a gunpowder , and used multiple solvents to extractall the organic matter . Then they analyzed each sampling of excrement for metabolized versions of creature - derived cholesterol , as well as a cholesterol - similar compound establish in flora , called phytosterol . All five of the samples showed signs of meat use , although two of them showed traces of plant affair – the first direct evidence that Neanderthals may have enjoyed an omnivorous dieting . Theworkwas account inPLoS ONEthis workweek .
Here are some photos of more or less burn fossilized feces ( or coprolites ) that were constitute near fire pit ( which were n’t combat-ready when the BM were fix , naturally ) . The fluorescence in the bottom image indicates high phosphate content .
Even though the works biomarker was found in just two samples , that still indicate that square helpings of plant matter were ingest . Gram for gram , there ’s more cholesterin in meat than there is phytosterol in plant , so it would take a significant plant intake to produce even a little amount of metabolized phytosterol , Sistiaga explains . Neandertal man probably ate what was available to them during different situation , season , and climate .
The traditional view of our nonextant cousins is that they look too much on meat , Science reports , whereas forward-looking humans are more versatile , surviving on a broad spectrum of victuals . “ It ’s important to understand all aspects of why humanity has get to dominate the major planet the way it does , ” study coauthorRoger Summons of MITsays in anews release . “ A good deal of that has to do with improved nutrition over time . ”
Images : B. Galván and PLOS ONE / Creative Commons
