Neanderthals' cooked diet

Scientists have upgraded their opinion of Neanderthal cuisine after spotting traces of cooked food on the fossilised teeth of our long-extinct cousins.

The researchers found remnants of date palms, seeds and legumes on the teeth of three Neanderthals, uncovered in caves in Iraq and Belgium. Among the scraps of food embedded in the plaque on the Neanderthals’ teeth were particles of starch from barley and water lilies that showed  signs of having been cooked.

The Ice Age leftovers are believed to be the first direct evidence that the Neanderthal diet included cooked food as plants and meat obtained by hunting wild animals.