Posted on 06/26/2014 7:54:45 PM PDT by blam
Will Dunham, Reuters
Jun. 26, 2014
Don't laugh, but the discovery of the oldest known human poop is offering valuable scientific insight into the life of Neanderthals who lived in Spain some 50,000 years ago.
Scientists said on Wednesday they found five samples of human fecal matter at an archeological site called El Salt, in the floor of a rock shelter where Neanderthals once lived.
Analysis of the samples provided a new understanding of the diet of this extinct human species, offering the first evidence that Neanderthals were omnivores who also ate vegetables as part of their meat-heavy diet, they said.
The straight poop: Fossil feces is not merely prehistoric toilet humor.
"So far, it is the only fossil evidence that gives us information of the ingestion and the regular meals of our ancestors," said Ainara Sistiaga, a geoarchaeologist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and University of La Laguna who was one of the researchers.
"Understanding the diet of past human species closely related to our own will help us gain perspective on our evolutionary constraints and adaptability," Sistiaga added.
The researchers examined the fecal fossils for biologically derived indicators of the types of food the Neanderthals ate.
Their findings indicate that Neanderthals predominantly consumed meat, as suggested by high amounts of one such "biomarker" called coprostanol formed by the bacterial reduction of cholesterol in the gut. But they also found evidence for significant plant intake as shown by the presence of a compound called 5 beta-stigmastanol, found in plant sources.
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(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Aw, sh!t!!
“diet of this extinct human species”
Where is the “Not this crap, again!” dude?
Those dates also baffle me. How were they determined? If you do the math, there would ne much more people living today if we have ben around that long.
Doesn’t surprise me one bit. I try to maintain a paleo-diet and most mornings it feels like I’m pooping a fossil...
Mediteranean diet for me...lots of fish, poultry,nuts, olive oils, fresh veggies and some grain based carbs. Also red wine. No cheese or much dairy really...almond milk or Greek yogurt for me.
>> “Those dates also baffle me. How were they determined?” <<
.
They extracted them from the same location as the poop came from.
I know this as a (semi) serious subject and all but honestly, I want to know, more than about neanderthal science, how it is that at some point in a budding young mind a decision is made to make a career out of studying the feces of others.
Does one begin studying ones own feces and then, having developed a love for it, chase the family pet around the yard? Go on litterbox excavations?
how does this work exactly?
Good one.
The guy in the second photo looks like the bums I see in downtown Seattle!
Lie expectancy before invention of modern medicine was abysmally low. Food was scarce, shelter was brutal and medicines were non-existent. We are so dammmm lucky to be living in the current times.
Wow, without a 7-11 on the corner, early humans had to eat whatever they could kill or forage.
Their diet was terrible. They’re all dead.
Or, we could phone Justice Ginsberg and ask her what she had for lunch.
I drank almond milk for a while (and was eating almonds at the same time) until I realized my blood was so thin I was bruising like people on blood thinners. Vitamin E from the almonds stores up in your body. Have you noticed anything like that?
Just to try out my new tagline...
lol
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