Researchers believe humans’ closest relatives may have stored meat from their kills for months before eating it
For hungry Neanderthals, there was more on the menu than wild mammals, roasted pigeon, seafood and plants. Chemical signatures in the ancient bones point to a nutritious and somewhat inevitable side dish: handfuls of fresh maggots.
The theory from US researchers undermines previous thinking that Neanderthals were “hypercarnivores” who stood at the top of the food chain with cave lions, sabre-toothed tigers and other beasts that consumed impressive quantities of meat.
Rather than feasting on endless mammoth steaks, they stored their kills for months, the scientists believe, favouring the fatty parts over lean meat, and the maggots that riddled the putrefying carcasses.
4g per kg of body weight is still a tremendous amount of meat.
Not especially. That’s 300g or 10.5 oz of meat for a 75kg person.
Assuming 7 grams of protein per ounce of beef, you’d need roughly 1.21 kgs of beef for a 75kg Neanderthal.
Ah, i misread your comment as saying 4g of meat/kg and not 4g of protein/kg. Thanks for the correction.
Superb article, really!
-Humans were on top of the food chain, even if they didn’t consume proportionally as much meat as carnivores, as they are fucking carnivores… -Maggots are meat…
Apparently maggots are plants now.
favouring the fatty parts over lean meat, and the maggots that riddled the putrefying carcasses.
The next new diet fads are going to be really interesting:
“Bruh! You gotta try the latest True Paleo™ diet…”
Crazy
So they were farming maggots?
We could have a bit of yummy meat today and then its gone, or we could leave it and have maggots for months.
Pretty smart, if gross.
Actually, maggots are super nutritious - they’re like 50% protein and have tons of essential fats that would’ve been crucial for brain development, so it was probably more of a win-win than just a storage solution!
The trick must surely lie in the preparation. We aren’t Neanderthals and cook our food, and I’m sure we can find a way to make maggots or other insect larvae appetizing. As you mentioned, they are highly nutritious.
Or they could have frozen it and thawed it by the fire, because winter, but hey wtf do I know.
We have the advantage of technological improvements though. They crawled so we could walk
Are maggots not meat?
Wonder if this relates to our love for aged meat.
