Neanderthals weren’t ‘hypercarnivores’ and feasted on maggots, scientists say | Science

For hungry Neanderthals, there was extra on the menu than wild mammals, roasted pigeon, seafood and crops. Chemical signatures within the historic bones level to a nutritious and considerably inevitable facet dish: handfuls of recent maggots.

The concept from US researchers undermines earlier considering that Neanderthals have been “hypercarnivores” who stood on the high of the meals chain with cave lions, sabre-toothed tigers and different beasts that consumed spectacular portions of meat.

Rather than feasting on limitless mammoth steaks, they saved their kills for months, the scientists consider, favouring the fatty elements over lean meat, and the maggots that riddled the putrefying carcasses.

“Neanderthals were not hypercarnivores, their diet was different,” mentioned John Speth, professor emeritus of anthropology on the University of Michigan. “It’s likely maggots were a major food.”

Neanderthals have been regarded as high of the meals chain due to the excessive ranges of heavy nitrogen of their bones. Nitrogen builds up in dwelling organisms after they metabolise protein of their meals. A lighter type of the aspect, nitrogen-14, is excreted extra readily than the heavier kind, nitrogen-15. As a end result, heavy nitrogen builds up in organisms with every step up the meals chain, from crops to herbivores to carnivores.

While the degrees of heavy nitrogen in Neanderthal bones place them on the high of the meals chain, they’d not have been in a position to deal with the quantity of meat wanted to succeed in these ranges, the researchers say.

“Humans can only tolerate up to about 4 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight, whereas animals like lions can tolerate anywhere from two to four times that much protein safely,” mentioned Speth.

Since many Indigenous teams around the globe routinely devour maggots in putrefied meat, the researchers determined to discover their potential position. The experiments weren’t for the squeamish.

Dr Melanie Beasley, a member of the crew at Purdue University in Indiana, was previously on the Forensic Anthropology Center, or Body Farm, on the University of Tennessee. There, researchers research donated human corpses which are left to decompose. The work helps forensic scientists hone their methods, for instance, to determine for the way lengthy folks have been lifeless.

Beasley measured heavy nitrogen in putrefying muscle and the maggots that infested the corpses. Heavy nitrogen rose barely as muscle putrefied, however was far larger within the maggots. The identical course of would have occurred in carcasses the Neanderthals saved, Beasley mentioned.

The discovering, reported in Science Advances, means that relatively than consuming meat as ravenously as lions and different hypercarnivores, Neanderthals acquired excessive ranges of heavy nitrogen by consuming maggots, which themselves have been enriched with heavy nitrogen.

“The only reason this is surprising is that it contradicts what we westerners think of as food,” mentioned Karen Hardy, professor of prehistoric archaeology on the University of Glasgow. “Elsewhere in the world, a very wide range of things are eaten, and maggots are a great source of protein, fat and essential amino acids.”

“It is a no brainer for Neanderthals,” she added. “Put out a bit of meat, leave it for a few days then go back and harvest your maggots, its a very easy way to get good nutritious food.”

“How does it shift our thinking? The Neanderthals as top carnivores was nonsense, it was physiologically impossible. So this makes sense, but also explains these high nitrogen signals in a way that nothing else has done so clearly,” Hardy mentioned.