Isotopic evidence for the diets of European Neanderthals and early modern humans

Abstract

We report here on the direct isotopic evidence for Neanderthal and early modern human diets in Europe. Isotopic methods indicate the sources of dietary protein over many years of life, and show that Neanderthals had a similar diet through time (Ϸ120,000 to Ϸ37,000 cal BP) and in different regions of Europe. The isotopic evidence indicates that in all cases Neanderthals were top-level carnivores and obtained all, or most, of their dietary protein from large herbivores. In contrast, early modern humans (Ϸ40,000 to Ϸ27,000 cal BP) exhibited a wider range of isotopic values, and a number of individuals had evidence for the consumption of aquatic (marine and freshwater) resources. This pattern includes Oase 1, the oldest directly dated modern human in Europe (Ϸ40,000 cal BP) with the highest nitrogen isotope value of all of the humans studied, likely because of freshwater fish consumption. As Oase 1 was close in time to the last Neanderthals, these data may indicate a significant dietary shift associated with the changing population dynamics of modern human emergence in Europe.Europe ͉ isotopes ͉ collagen ͉ fishing

Plant foods and the dietary ecology of Neanderthals and early modern humans

“…This lack of evidence for a shift in diet breadth between Neanderthals and modern humans contrasts with the results from studies of animal foods (e.g., Stiner et al, 2000;Richards and Trinkaus, 2009). The generation of a sizable amount of data on plant exploitation from the microremains records suggests a more complex picture of Neanderthal and modern human dietary behavior than previously drawn.…”

“…Results from faunal profiles (e.g., Stiner, 2006;Stiner et al, 2000), nitrogen and carbon isotope analyses (e.g., Bocherens, 2009;Richards and Trinkaus, 2009), and energy requirement estimations (e.g., Froehle and Churchill, 2009), together with a lack of complex technology (e.g., Shea, 2006), have suggested that Neanderthals ate almost exclusively large animal game, with very little contribution from plants, small game or aquatic foods. In a behavioral ecology context, this narrow diet is a reflection of an environment where encounter rates with highlyranked prey are high, human population sizes are low, and the pressure to create new, complex social structures, such as a sexual division of labor, and complex technology to increase the capture and processing of foods, such as atlatls and dedicated plant grinding implements, is low (Bright et al, 2002;Kuhn and Stiner, 2006;O'Connell, 2006).…”

Evolution of the base of the brain in highly encephalized human species

“…However, olfaction, and its contribution to gustation with its links to reward (pleasure) 23 and memory, could also be of evolutionary relevance, but at a secondary level 27 regarding the manipulation of food 23,52 . Although it has been speculated that early modern humans may have fed on a wider array than Neanderthals 53 , the role that olfaction, gustation or memory and reward might have had in this context must remain open to speculation. Lieberman 27 suggested that the eff ect of higher basicranial fl exion, approximating pharynx and olfactory epithelium, has enhanced the retronasal contribution of smell to taste 52 .…”

Neanderthal diets in central and southeastern Mediterranean Iberia

“…The first analysis on Neanderthals was done on Les Pradelles (France) (Fizet et al, 1995). Since then, about twenty other specimens have been analysed around the Eurasian continent (see review from Richards and Trinkaus, 2009). These analyses show a quite uniform Neanderthal dietary trophic ecology, regardless of geographic area and chronology.…”

“…These results suggest a rigid dietary pattern among Neanderthals that is specific to them as a species. This would mean that they could have been more vulnerable in case they competed for food resources during the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic transition with modern humans (Bocherens and Drucker, 2006), of which the isotopic evidence suggest a higher variability in the diet (Richards and Trinkaus, 2009). However, all of these interpretations are based on analyses carried out on Neanderthals from northern latitudes and cold environments.…”