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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.
Observational sciences are always weaker than experimental sciences for exactly this reason. Today we debunk the previous assumption that cave men only ate meat. How did we come to that conclusion in the first place? Wild ass guess, most likely.
Put it this way - we know 'they ate plant matter'. We might (according to the study's conclusions) be able to determine 'how much' with further study. But I imagine we're quite a ways away from 'what plants'. We're also still making WAGs about how they got those plants, vis-a-vis hunter gatherers.
They could have farmed them.
They COULD have used biodegradable tools, sustainable farming, etc, and we'd never know they did 50,000 years later because those things don't leave behind fossils.
TLDR - Pics or it didn't happen