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. 2009 Sep 22;106(38):16034-9.
doi: 10.1073/pnas.0903821106. Epub 2009 Aug 11.

Out of Africa: modern human origins special feature: isotopic evidence for the diets of European Neanderthals and early modern humans

Michael P Richards  1 , Erik Trinkaus
Affiliations

Out of Africa: modern human origins special feature: isotopic evidence for the diets of European Neanderthals and early modern humans

Michael P Richards et al. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. .

Abstract

We report here on the direct isotopic evidence for Neanderthal and early modern human diets in Europe. Isotopic methods indicate the sources of dietary protein over many years of life, and show that Neanderthals had a similar diet through time (approximately 120,000 to approximately 37,000 cal BP) and in different regions of Europe. The isotopic evidence indicates that in all cases Neanderthals were top-level carnivores and obtained all, or most, of their dietary protein from large herbivores. In contrast, early modern humans (approximately 40,000 to approximately 27,000 cal BP) exhibited a wider range of isotopic values, and a number of individuals had evidence for the consumption of aquatic (marine and freshwater) resources. This pattern includes Oase 1, the oldest directly dated modern human in Europe (approximately 40,000 cal BP) with the highest nitrogen isotope value of all of the humans studied, likely because of freshwater fish consumption. As Oase 1 was close in time to the last Neanderthals, these data may indicate a significant dietary shift associated with the changing population dynamics of modern human emergence in Europe.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
Carbon and nitrogen isotope values of bone collagen from Neanderthals and early modern humans from Europe. Errors on the isotope measurements are typically ±0.2‰ for both δ13C and δ15N.
Fig. 2.
Fig. 2.
Carbon and nitrogen isotope data for the Oase 1 human and associated fauna taken from Trinkaus et al. (4) and the present study. Errors on the isotope measurements are typically ±0.2‰ for both δ13C and δ15N.
Fig. 3.
Fig. 3.
δ13C bone collagen values of directly radiocarbon-dated Neanderthals and early modern humans compared to the average δ13C values of directly radiocarbon-dated herbivores from Northern Europe (34) over the period 50,000 to 20,000 cal BP.
Fig. 4.
Fig. 4.
δ15N bone collagen values of directly radiocarbon-dated Neanderthals and early modern humans compared to the average δ15N values of directly radiocarbon dated herbivores from Northern Europe (34) over the period 50,000 to 20,000 cal BP.
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