{"id":23628,"date":"2023-02-07T06:00:40","date_gmt":"2023-02-07T05:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sciencefocus.com\/?p=136422"},"modified":"2023-02-07T07:35:13","modified_gmt":"2023-02-07T06:35:13","slug":"neanderthal-gourmets-regularly-feasted-on-roasted-crab","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/rss_feed\/neanderthal-gourmets-regularly-feasted-on-roasted-crab\/","title":{"rendered":"Neanderthal gourmets regularly feasted on roasted crab"},"content":{"rendered":"

The discovery of cooked crab shells in a Lisbon cave is further evidence that the early hominids had a sophisticated culture. <\/p>

By Jason Goodyer\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Tuesday, 07 February 2023 at 12:00 am<\/p>

\n\n

While once thought to be lumbering, slow-witted brutes, evidence has mounted over the past decade or so that Neanderthals had a rich, sophisticated culture \u2013 they were capable hunters and toolmakers, created art and ate a varied diet consisting of cooked food.<\/p>\n

Now, researchers from Spain\u2019s Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution (IPHES-CERCA) have found further evidence of our closest relatives\u2019 cooking skills and discerning palates \u2013 they have unearthed evidence in a cave south of Lisbon that Neanderthals were capturing, cooking and eating brown crabs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Named Gruta de Figueira Brava, the cave contains the charred shells of brown crabs that date back 90,000 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the Last Interglacial, Neanderthals regularly harvested large brown crabs,\u201d said lead researcher Dr Mariana Nabais<\/a> of IPHES-CERCA.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were taking them in pools of the nearby rocky coast, targeting adult animals with an average carapace width of 16cm. The animals were brought whole to the cave, where they were roasted on coals and then eaten.\u201d<\/p>\n

Upon examining the leftover shells and claws, the researchers estimated that the crabs were mostly large adults that contained around 200g of meat. The lack of tell-tale scratches or marks on the shells rules out the possibility that they were eaten by rodents or birds and so were likely harvested by the Neanderthals from low tide pools in the summer, they say.<\/p>\n

Also, black burns on the shells indicate that they were heated up to somewhere between 300 and 500\u00b0C, a common, if slightly high, temperature for cooking.<\/p>\n

The finding also casts doubt on the theory that the consumption of seafood helped early humans\u2019 brains to develop more quickly than Neanderthals\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur results add an extra nail to the coffin of the obsolete notion that Neanderthals were primitive cave dwellers who could barely scrape a living off scavenged big-game carcasses,\u201d said Nabais.<\/p>\n

\u201cTogether with the associated evidence for the large-scale consumption of limpets, mussels, clams, and a range of fish, our data falsify the notion that marine foods played a major role in the emergence of putatively superior cognitive abilities among early modern human populations of sub-Saharan Africa.\u201d<\/p>\n