Early modern humans consumed more plants than Neanderthals but ate very little fish
August 8, 2017
Early modern humans consumed more plants than Neanderthals but ate very little fish
Senckenberg scientists have studied the diet of anatomically modern humans. With their recent study, published today in the journal Scientific Reports, they were able to refute the theory that the diet of early representatives of Homo sapiens was more flexible than that of Neanderthals. Just like the Neanderthals, our ancestors had mainly mammoth and plants on their plates – the researchers were unable to document fish as part of their diet. Therefore, the international team assumes that the displacement of the Neanderthals was the result of direct competition.
The first representatives of Homo sapiens colonized Europe around 43,000 years ago, replacing the Neanderthals there approximately 3,000 years later. "Many studies examine the question of what led to this displacement – one hypothesis postulates that the diet of the anatomically modern humans was more diverse and flexible and often included fish," explains Prof. Dr. Hervé Bocherens of the Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment (HEP) at the University of Tübingen
Read more at:
https://phys.org/news/2017-08-early-modern-humans-consumed-neanderthals.html#jCp
