Neanderthal dental tartar reveals plant-based diet – and drugs

Analysis of teeth of Spanish Neanderthals shows diet of pine nuts, mushrooms and moss and indicates possible self-medication for pain and diarrhoea

A diet of pine nuts, mushrooms and moss might sound like modernist cuisine, but it turns out it was standard fare for Spanish Neanderthals.

Researchers studying the teeth of the heavy-browed hominids have discovered that while Neanderthals in Belgium were chomping on woolly rhinoceros, those further south were surviving on plants and may even have used naturally occurring painkillers to ease toothache.