Posted on 06/27/2014 2:46:11 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Fossilized feces offer new evidence that Neanderthals ate both meat and plants. Chemical analysis confirmed the oldest-known ancient human fecal matter, according to a study published yesterday (June 25) in PLOS ONE.
Previous isotope studies of bones suggested Neanderthals were primarily meat-eaters. Analyses of tartar from their teeth have indicated they may have also eaten plants, although some researchers noted that these plant remains could be traces from the stomach contents of herbivore prey.
Stool, however, is "the perfect evidence because you’re sure it was consumed," study author Ainara Sistiaga from the University of La Laguna in Spain told BBC News.
Sistiaga and her colleagues identified fecal biomarkers of cholesterol and plant sterol digestion in 50,000-year-old samples collected from Paleolithic sites in Spain. Future studies will help clarify the nature and proportion of plants in Neanderthal diets, and could reveal whether veggies were a dietary staple or eaten rarely. Such data also have implications in understanding how the human digestive system and gut microbes evolved, the authors wrote in their paper.
“Their results are confirming an idea that is still somewhat new in the field,” paleobiologist Amanda Henry from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany told National Geographic. Henry added that “the paper would have been stronger” if the researchers had included more evidence that the samples were human, and not from other omnivores such as bears. But Sistiaga said the ratios of metabolites they identified are only seen in humans.
Other researchers are more convinced. “The start point, the teeth, and the end point, the feces, show the same thing,” archeologist Stephen Buckley of the University of York told the BBC. “The evidence is clear at both ends, if you like.”
“Hey doc, whaddya been workin on lately?”
“Oh, you know - pokin around in caveman poo.”
“Meat & potatoes”... whoda thunk it
Poo ping.
I guess they didn’t floss or rubber-tip.
Different day, same old coprolites.
I could have predicted that without looking at their scat.
Herbivorous diets require extensive grazing and a digestive system adapted to it. Carnivorous diets require a nomadic lifestyle and either continual hunting or animal husbandry.
Omnivorous diets have significant advantages over both. And cooking magnifies this advantage, because it radically increases the bioavailability of nutrients in food.
My guess is that when you haven’t invented barbed wire, guns, farming utensils and your hungry and stupid you eat about anything available.
poor vegans. Dreams and illusions shattered by poop.
LOL POOP
“Stool, however, is “the perfect evidence because you’re sure it was consumed,” study author Ainara Sistiaga from the University of La Laguna in Spain told BBC News. “
When you are this excited about stool, you may have made a wrong turn somewhere in life. Just sayin’
buffet?
Well, here’s another pool I lost. I had “Twinkies” and “Ding Dongs”.
The Neandertal Enigma"Frayer's own reading of the record reveals a number of overlooked traits that clearly and specifically link the Neandertals to the Cro-Magnons. One such trait is the shape of the opening of the nerve canal in the lower jaw, a spot where dentists often give a pain-blocking injection. In many Neandertal, the upper portion of the opening is covered by a broad bony ridge, a curious feature also carried by a significant number of Cro-Magnons. But none of the alleged 'ancestors of us all' fossils from Africa have it, and it is extremely rare in modern people outside Europe." [pp 126-127]
by James Shreeve
in local libraries
Got my mail first time since the 25th or before. Thanks to a FReeper to be named later for the link to the PLOS paper underlying all this:
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0101045
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