Scientists uncover evidence of vegetarianism among Neanderthals

Archaeologists are studying tartar, or dental calculus from Neanderthal teeth in fossils to learn about the food habits of the primitive humans.

"We have complete jaws with teeth, we have upper jaws with skulls with teeth intact, isolated teeth," says Keith Dobney, an archaeologist at the University of Liverpool.

Dobney and his colleagues extracted bits of the calculus and analysed the DNA preserved in it for clues to what the Neanderthals ate.

They studied plaques from the teeth of three Neanderthals, two of whom lived in Belgium and one in Spain 50,000 years ago.

The Belgian was a meat eater. "We found evidence of woolly rhino. We found the DNA of wild sheep," says Dobney.

"Most Neanderthals that had been analyzed [before] were really heavy meat eaters," says Laura Weyrich, at the Australian Center for Ancient DNA at the University of Adelaide, Australia, and the lead author on the new study. She said those previous studies had suggested that "Neanderthals were as carnivorous as polar bears."

However, the new study offered a big surprise, as per the DNA in dental plaques, the Neanderthals in Spain ate no meat at all.

"We find things like pine nuts, moss, tree barks and even mushrooms as well," says Weyrich. "It is very indicative of a vegetarian diet, probably the true Paleo diet."

Teeth, Dobney said, are ''this fantastic time capsule of biological information that traps not only direct evidence of the food that goes in your mouth, but these amazingly well preserved ecosystems that have evolved with us,'' The Washington Post reported.

''Looking at bacteria and pathogens and the evolution of pathogens and the evolution of diets,'' he continued, ''we have a whole new discipline, a whole new field of study that is going to change the way we look at the past.''