J Hum Evol. 2011 Ecogeographic variation in Neandertal dietary habits

[hailtotheking]

J Hum Evol. 2011 Jun 28. [Epub ahead of print]
Ecogeographic variation in Neandertal dietary habits: Evidence from occlusal molar microwear texture analysis.
El Zaatari S, Grine FE, Ungar PS, Hublin JJ.
Source
Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103 Leipzig, Germany; Wiener Laboratory, American School of Classical Studies at Athens, 54 Souidias Street, 106-76 Athens, Greece.
Abstract
In the late Middle and early Late Pleistocene, Neandertals inhabited a wide variety of ecological zones across western Eurasia during both glacial and interglacial times. To elucidate the still poorly understood effects of climatic change on Neandertal subsistence patterns, this study employs dental microwear texture analysis to reconstruct the diets of Neandertal individuals from various sites across their wide temporal and geographic ranges. The results of this study reveal environmentally-driven differences in the diets of Neandertal groups. Significant differences in microwear signatures, correlated with paleoecological conditions, were found among Neandertal groups that lived in open, mixed, and wooded environments. In comparison to recent hunter-gatherer populations with known, yet diverse diets, the occlusal molar microwear signatures of all the Neandertal groups indicate that their diet consisted predominantly of meat. However, the results of this study suggest that plant foods did form an important part of the diet of at least some Neandertal groups (i.e., those that lived in mixed and wooded habitats). Overall, the proportion of plant foods in the Neandertal diet appears to have increased with the increase in tree cover.

Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

[James]

Good evidence of what we pretty much have been inclined to think. Still, worth the clinical study/research/results.

[NU_nutrition_TS]

Interesting to note which parts of that we choose to highlight - for instance my eye was caught by:

Quote

In comparison to recent hunter-gatherer populations with known, yet diverse diets, the occlusal molar microwear signatures of all the Neandertal groups indicate that their diet consisted predominantly of meat.

I wonder if they became extinct as a consequence of:

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...the proportion of plant foods in the Neandertal diet appears to have increased with the increase in tree cover.

????