
Neanderthal microbes reveal surprises about what they ate - sethbannon
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2017/03/08/neanderthal-microbes-reveal-surprises-about-what-they-ate-and-who-they-kissed/
======
ronnier
> the Belgian individuals seemed to have dramatically different diets than
> their Spanish contemporaries

> The Belgian individuals ... woolly rhinoceros, sheep and edible mushrooms

> the Spanish Neanderthals ... didn't seem to be eating any meat. Their teeth
> instead bore traces of mushrooms, pine nuts and forest mos

------
redwood
Regarding the mushrooms both were found to have been eating, I am reminded of
Terence McKenna's "stoned ape" theory
[http://www.lycaeum.org/~sputnik/McKenna/Evolution/theory.htm...](http://www.lycaeum.org/~sputnik/McKenna/Evolution/theory.html)

------
visarga
> there is a growing body of evidence that they were far more advanced than
> modern humans give them credit for. Recent studies revealed that they wore
> jewelry, created art and architecture, made complex tools and developed
> sophisticated big-game hunting strategies. All this suggests that they were
> capable of symbolic thought and social coordination, intellectual abilities
> that were once considered exclusively human

Any chance of recreating Neanderthals from DNA a la Jurassic Park? We could
find out how advanced they were - the only species comparable to humans as of
yet.

~~~
dragandj
Not only they are humans (homo neanderthalensis vs homo sapiens, but both
homo) but there are traces of Neanderthal DNA in modern humans, since there
was interbreading among them. So, no wonder they are comparable to us, since
they are not that much different than us on evolutionary timescale.

------
slitaz
Any source of the actual article?

~~~
abrowne
_The Guardian_ article¹ links to _Nature_ ².

1:
[https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/mar/08/neanderthal-...](https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/mar/08/neanderthal-
dental-tartar-reveals-plant-based-diet-and-drugs)
2:[http://nature.com/articles/doi:10.1038/nature21674](http://nature.com/articles/doi:10.1038/nature21674)

------
skj
How can a microbe express surprise?

~~~
magic_beans
The microbes are not expressing surprise (the emotion) but revealing surprises
(surprise-inducing noun plural).

~~~
skj
yes, that's the joke.

