Overview
- A new PNAS study reports that Neanderthals at Los Aviones Cave in Cartagena, Spain harvested and ate mollusks about 115,000 years ago.
- Researchers read oxygen isotope patterns in shell carbonates, which track seawater temperature like a prehistoric thermometer, to pinpoint when the shellfish were gathered.
- The harvests cluster in colder months, roughly November through April, when shellfish grow larger and carry lower risks from warm‑season toxins and spoilage.
- The authors call this a fully modern subsistence strategy that challenges older claims that Neanderthals struggled to use coastal resources.
- The marine menu provided omega‑3 fats and zinc from limpets and sea snails, and any influence on later human shellfish use remains speculative.