New research has revealed that ancient humans ate snails as a regular part of their diet.
Hundreds of burnt snail shells were found near fireplaces along with tools and other animal remains in rock shelters along a cliff in Spain. The finding suggests Paleolithic people on the Iberian Peninsula ate snails more than 10,000 years earlier than those who lived in the neighboring Mediterranean region.
The snails probably didn’t make up a calorically significant part of these Paleolithic people’s diet, but may have provided key vitamins and nutrients, said study lead author Javier Fernández-López de Pablo, an archaeologist at the Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social in Spain.
Story: Tia Ghose, Live Science | Photo: Fernández-López de Pablo et al.
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