Neanderthals Feasted on Seafood, Seabirds, Perhaps Even Dolphins

trilobites Scientists say that a discovery in a seaside Portuguese cave further challenges popular images of Neanderthals as meat-eating brutes. Neanderthals are often portrayed chowing down on mammoth meals and woolly rhino ribs. But an analysis of their leftovers from a coastal cave in Portugal suggests fish and mollusks claimed a special place on their Paleolithic palates. “We all have that image of the primitive Neanderthal that eats lots of meat,” said Filipa Rodrigues, an archaeologist at the University of Lisbon and author of a paper published Thursday in Science.

“Now, we have this new perspective that they explored the marine resources like Homo sapiens did. ” Archaeologists have previously found evidence that Neanderthals ate, collected and wore jewelry fashioned from shellfish. But evidence they consumed large amounts of fish has been lacking. Some scientists have argued Neanderthals did not have the skill or wit to catch fish as their Homo sapiens contemporaries did in Africa, and may have lost out on consuming aquatic animals rich in fatty acids that could have aided with brain development.

But deep in Cueva de Figueira Brava, which housed Neanderthals about 100,000 years ago, Dr. Rodrigues and her colleagues have uncovered more than 560 fish bones, as well as remains from clams, mussels, crabs, waterfowl, seabirds, seals and dolphins. The findings suggest Neanderthals cast a wide net to add sea creatures to their dinner menus, and the researchers say it shows the behavior of the archaic species was comparable to modern humans that lived at the time. “In this one tiny window of visibility, they demonstrate that Neanderthals ate quantities of seafood,” said Peter Rowley-Conwy, an archaeologist from Durham University, who was not involved in the study.

When Neanderthals occupied Figueira Brava, it was about a mile from the water. Today the cave, some 20 miles south of Lisbon, is right on the coast. The site had been previously explored and identified in the 1980s as a Neanderthal shelter, but no fish remains were uncovered. Dr.

Rodrigues and her team excavated the cave from 2010 through 2013. To get to their point of interest, they went through one of three cave entrances into a room and then squeezed through a narrow passageway into another, much smaller room. To fit through the channel, Dr. Rodrigues had to stretch one arm straight above her head and place the other at her side and start “crawling like a worm.