A new research article in the journal "PLOS One" examines some of the oldest known Neanderthal poop and has discovered that instead of being simple carnivores, their poop indicates that plants appear to have made up a significant component of their diet. The research has already drawn the attention of the mass media and a couple of sources that provide the straight poop include the website of the National Geographic Society; see: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/06/140625-neanderthal-poop-diet-ancient-science-archaeology/ And the "USA Today"; see: http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2014/06/25/human-poop-neanderthals/11105791/
The original research article is available on the PLOS 1 website; see: http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0101045 The poop comes from a site in Spain and what makes it a particularly unusual find is that the area where the poop was found was also a cooking area. So far no one seems to have commented on when the keen insight "Don't poop where you eat" came into existence (the researchers "think" the cooking area may have been converted into a latrine after it was a cooking site -- at least one hopes so). For some reason, I have a mental image of a group of Neanderthals sitting around a fire and eating a stew of legumes comparable to a scene from Mel Brooks "Blazing Saddles". One wonders if Neanderthals enjoyed fart jokes. ;-) -Mike Palij New York University m...@nyu.edu --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: arch...@jab.org. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=37275 or send a blank email to leave-37275-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
