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Neanderthals Ate Their Veggies
sciencehabit (1205606) writes Scientists excavating an archaeological site in southern Spain have finally gotten the real poop on Neanderthals, finding that the Caveman Diet for these quintessential carnivores included substantial helpings of vegetables. Using the oldest published samples of human fecal matter, archaeologists have found the first direct evidence that Neanderthals in Europe cooked and ate plants about 50,000 years ago.
One thing I'd be curious to find out is whether or not the Neanderthals were doing this because they preferred vegetables, or because they had nothing else around to eat.
Every animal when faced with hunger, will try to eat anything that looks remotely edible to it. The belief that neanderthals wouldn't be eating vegetables regularly is ridiculous.
Seems like it shoots down the idea that no Neanderthal ate cooked veggies.
One counterexample goes a long way toward rejecting a theory.
I've always assumed that if they were hunter gatherers, part of the 'gathering' is likely to be food derived from plants.
If it has teeth like an omnivore, and poops like an omnivore, it's probably a freaking omnivore.
I should think not long after they got fire, they started cooking stuff.
My guess, they collected anything they knew they could eat, and ate it.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
As if it fucking matters.
There are two types of people in the world: Those who crave closure
The fact that they had a high rate of conversion (i.e. they digested the plant instead of passing it) it is reasonable to assume that they were ADAPTED to eating veggies, which means it was part of the reason they survived/evolved.
Finding veggies in stool is no big deal, wild cats poop out grass all the time, it doesn't make them true omnivores.
They found DIGESTED vegetable matter, that is the true find, and one that easily extrapolates across the entire species.