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Neanderthals ate sharks and dolphins
Neanderthals were eating fish, mussels and seals at a site in present-day Portugal, according to a new study.
The research adds to mounting evidence that our evolutionary relatives may have relied on the sea for food just as much as ancient modern humans.
For decades, the ability to gather food from the sea and from rivers was seen as something unique to our own species.
Scientists found evidence for an intensive reliance on seafood at a Neanderthal site in southern Portugal.
Neanderthals living between 106,000 and 86,000 years ago at the cave of Figueira Brava near Setubal were eating mussels, crab, fish - including sharks, eels and sea bream - seabirds, dolphins and seals.
The research team, led by Dr João Zilhão from the University of Barcelona, Spain, found that marine food made up about 50% of the diet of the Figueira Brava Neanderthals. The other half came from terrestrial animals, such as deer, goats, horses, aurochs (ancient wild cattle) and tortoises.
Also at ScienceAlert and Smithsonian Magazine.
Last Interglacial Iberian Neandertals as fisher-hunter-gatherers (DOI: 10.1126/science.aaz7943) (DX)
Related: Arctic Inuit, Native American Cold Adaptations May Originate from Extinct Hominids
Evidence of "Swimmer's Ear" Found in Neanderthals
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Tuesday March 31 2020, @12:57PM
More so: Some land mammals even headed out unto the see to fetch food so often their land-adapted limbs eventually started to sea-adapt as that was the priority for them. So much so, we don't see their fused fore and hind limbs as feet any more, we see them at flippers and even tails.
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