Surprise: Neanderthals Liked Their Veggies, Too

Researchers have found evidence that suggests Neanderthals cooked and ate vegetables: Traces of fossilized vegetable matter were found in their teeth, and some of it appears to have been cooked. It could overturn the notion that Neanderthals were exclusive meat eaters and instead had a diet that was more sophisticated—and closer to our own—than previously thought, reports the BBC.

"We have found pollen grains in Neanderthal sites before, but you never know whether they were eating the plant or sleeping on them or what," says a George Washington University professor. "But here we have a case where a little bit of the plant is in the mouth so we know that the Neanderthals were consuming the food."

(More Neanderthals stories.)