Competition over mammoth meat may have wiped out Neanderthals

Neanderthals may have been wiped out due a direct competition with early humans for meat, say scientists who found that for both species mammoths were the primary source of meat. Scientists studied the diet of anatomically modern humans and were able to refute the theory that the diet of early representatives of Homo sapiens was more flexible than that of Neanderthals. Just like the Neanderthals, our ancestors had mainly mammoth and plants on their plates – the researchers were unable to document fish as part of their diet.

Therefore, the international team assumes that the displacement of the Neanderthals was the result of direct competition. The first representatives of Homo sapiens colonised Europe around 43,000 years ago, replacing the Neanderthals there approximately 3,000 years later. “Many studies examine the question of what led to this displacement – one hypothesis postulates that the diet of the anatomically modern humans was more diverse and flexible and often included fish,” said Herve Bocherens from the University of Tubingen in Germany.

Researchers studied the dietary habits of early modern man on the basis of the oldest know fossils from Ukraine. “In the course of this study, we examined the finds of early humans in the context …read more