Fish was a major part of the diet for early humans 20,000 years ago in Europe, in contrast to the red meat preferred by the more primitive Neanderthal, a recent study reveals.
A chemical signature for a diet rich in fish and seafood was found in the bones of early modern humans unearthed in Europe, researchers report in a study that appears on Tuesday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
An analysis of bones from Neanderthals, however, showed they preferred meat from the land animals that then roamed Europe.
Other researchers suggest that this finding supports the idea that concentration on eating fish helped to boost the brain power of modern humans.
Such food is known to contain higher levels of DHA, a fatty acid proven to enhance brain and eye development.
In the study, researchers led by Erik Trinkaus of Washington University in St. Louis analysed the levels of the isotopes carbon 13 and nitrogen 15 in the bones of early modern humans unearthed in the Czech Republic, Russia and Britain.
Those isotopes are thought to be the chemical signature for a diet rich in fish and waterfowl.
The bones, dated as 20,000 to 28,000 years old, showed that the early humans got from 10 per cent to 50 per cent of their dietary protein from marine foods.
In contrast, an analysis of the isotopes in the bones of Neanderthals who lived 28,000 to 130,000 years ago showed that these more primitive hominids dined almost exclusively on red meat, mostly from larger prey animals, the study found.
Stephen Cunnane, a professor of nutrition at the University of Toronto, called the study ''an important finding'' that supports a theory that the brainpower of early humans was boosted by the seafood diet's DHA.
Source: Paul Recer at Associated Press