Ancient human cousins of our own species,
Neanderthals disappeared from Europe some 30,000 years ago, around the time that modern humans arrived there. Long seen as strict carnivores, they hunted mammoth and reindeer, as evidenced by bones left at their campsites. (Related: "
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However, Neanderthal fecal samples
reported in the journal PLOS ONE on Wednesday suggest that they also ate plenty of berries, nuts, and other vegetables.
The oldest poop samples turned up at the site of El Salt, a collection of ancient hearths in southern Spain. The researchers were originally investigating the fire pits for chemical traces of fats from cooked meats. Amid the search, they unexpectedly found some fossil feces, or coprolites, in a top hearth layer dated to 50,000 years ago.
"I was quite surprised we found these samples in a place where they would eat," says MIT geoarchaeologist
Ainara Sistiaga, who led the study. "We think they were deposited after they stopped using the fire pit."
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For clues to the Neanderthal diet, lab samples of the feces were pulverized and examined for spectroscopic identification of their chemistry. In particular, the researchers looked for compounds created when bacteria aid digestion of meat and vegetables. (Related: "
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The results identified four fats associated with meat. But two cholesterol-related compounds that are an unambiguous fingerprint of plants also turned up.
"They were eating a lot of meat," Sistiaga says. "But we believe they were omnivorous."
Although the chemistry analysis cannot specify which plant foods Neanderthals were eating, pollen analysis suggests that berries, nuts, and tubers grew in the region when the archaic humans lived in Spain. (Related: "
Bonanza of Skulls in 'Pit of Bones' Changes View of Neanderthals.")
Mammoth, reindeer, and red deer bones widely found at Neanderthal sites had led paleontologists to see them as dedicated meat eaters. But more recent studies that uncovered
plant remains at Neanderthal sites, on their tools, and even in their
dental plaque had hinted that they were not strict carnivores.
The present study is the first to provide direct chemical analysis that Neanderthals ate vegetables—the most interesting part of the study, says paleontologist
Erik Trinkaus of Washington University in St. Louis, who was not part of the research.