According to the new study published in Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology, the Neanderthals living on the Iberian Peninsula hunted and ate mostly larger adult crabs. This suggests Neanderthals knew larger crabs provided more sustenance.
Sign up for our email newsletter for the latest science newsArchaeologists working in a seafront cave in Portugal have discovered the remains of various shellfish, including numerous brown crabs, where Neanderthals lived around 90,000 years ago. The finding suggests that Neanderthals were cooking and eating crab and shellfish meat., the Neanderthals living on the Iberian Peninsula hunted and ate mostly larger adult crabs. This suggests Neanderthals knew larger crabs provided more sustenance.
Given the proximity to the sea, researchers suggested Neanderthals resorted to hunting in the shallow waters, rather than moving inland. Findings in Gruta da Figueira Brava demonstrate that Neanderthals cooked the shellfish and crab over coals and then broke them open to eat the meat that was inside.Researchers could deduce that Neanderthals were responsible for the shellfish remains due to the type of damage observed on the shells.
“Our 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,” says study author Mariana Nabais in
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