Overview
- Researchers reporting in PNAS examined shell remains from Los Aviones Cave in Cartagena, Spain, identifying sea snails (Phorcus turbinatus) and Mediterranean limpets (Patella ferruginea) eaten by Neanderthals.
- By measuring oxygen isotopes preserved in the shells’ carbonate, a proxy for seawater temperature, the team determined when each mollusk was collected.
- The results show a strong preference for colder months, most likely November through April, rather than steady heavy collecting year-round.
- The authors propose winter harvesting offered larger and better-tasting meat before spawning and lowered the warm-season risk from toxin-producing algal blooms.
- The work dates the practice to about 115,000 years ago and argues that planned coastal foraging supplied omega-3 and zinc, fitting a modern-style subsistence strategy also seen in later human groups.