Huh. Last I heard (and I’ll admit I haven’t been keeping up with this), the “end of the Neanderthals” was actually just intermarriage. The skeletons involved show a gradual change, and then the researchers go in and classify them all. Which is useful, until people start asking where the classifications came from, without realizing they’re essentially made up.

A while back somebody did some DNA testing and determined that we share no genes with Neandertals. Evidence suggests our lines split about 500-400 kya. The idea is that Neandertals died out because they were incapable of the sort of innovations modern humans were. The main thing we had and they lacked was modern-style culture (as in, the modern definition and not modern culture itself). Stuff such as complex social groups and trade allowed AMHs to survive a period that the more simplistic Neandertals could not.

Also, on meat eating; human stomachs have trouble with raw muscle fiber, so that may have contributed to the omnivorous diet.

1) “Paleolithic”. Means “Old Stone Age”. The other word you seems to have had in mind is “Pleistocene”, and refers to something else.

D’oh. You’re right. I confused the Paleocene (which comes after the KT boundary) with the Pleistocene (aka “The Ice Age”). An honest mistake. Probably the result of over-studying. But Paleolithic refers more to a cultural period and wasn’t what I meant – although it’s at the same time as the Pliestocene.

2) Yeah, the Neanderthals ate almost exclusively meat, but it wasn’t because there weren’t plants available. Anatomically modern humans (”Cro-Magnons”) in the same time and area ate plenty of plant products.

AMH in Europe didn’t start broad spectrum foraging until the climate evened out in the Holocene and available game/hunting conditions in the area changed. At least, as far as I know. But Archeology isn’t really my stone of the hearth, so to speak.

1) “Paleolithic”. Means “Old Stone Age”. The other word you seems to have had in mind is “Pleistocene”, and refers to something else.

2) Yeah, the Neanderthals ate almost exclusively meat, but it wasn’t because there weren’t plants available. Anatomically modern humans (“Cro-Magnons”) in the same time and area ate plenty of plant products.

Apparently not, if you eat every single piece of the meat. I think that’s how the “Eskimos”/Native peoples of the far, far North American continent did it. Or so I’ve heard.

I’m guessing that gathering brought in many more calories than big game hunting, even fat- and protein-laden calories. Ever checked the nutritional content of a seed or a nut? That must be why I find them so yummy!!!

In Europe during the Paleocene there wasn’t really the variety of wild plant foods available to make this true. Neaderthals lived on meat.

So on the whole gathering probably brought in as many calories as hunting, though not the same sort of calories (like fat and protein

I’m guessing that gathering brought in many more calories than big game hunting, even fat- and protein-laden calories. Ever checked the nutritional content of a seed or a nut? That must be why I find them so yummy!!!

Despite the inevitable illo of Neanderthals and proto-human males wielding spears at extremely large scary mammals in every anthro and history textbook, there is much evidence (plenty of bones) that the main protein supply for ancient hominids were small animals like rabbits which were caught in snares set by both men and women.

While this is definitely true for Anatomically Modern Humans of the Upper Paleolithic, Neaderthals and other hominids of the Middle and Lower Paleolithic probably didn’t hunt with traps. Small mammal, bird, or fish bones aren’t found at Neanderthal sites, and no evidence of the types of tools you would need to make a trap or anything like a net or a rope have ever been found. (Yet. But when you look at the stone tools of the Upper Paleolithic, you find stuff that was obviously used for making the stuff you’d use to make a net out of…none of that with Neaderthal tool kits.)

If you want to go earlier than that, H. erectus or H. habilis for instance, it’s not even agreed upon whether or not they hunted or just scavenged carcasses. (Although, if you ask me, H. erectus was built for walking long distances like you’d have to do if you were endurance hunting like CBrachyrhynchos described.)

Also, whether or not Neanderthals are even a separate species from H. sapiens depends on who you ask.

But yeah, that article’s stupid.