Thursday, February 07, 2008

Doctoral student makes discovery on Neanderthal eating habits
A doctoral student studying hominid paleobiology has pioneered a method for analyzing reindeer bones from around 65,000 to 12,000 years ago, an accomplishment that allows scientists to further understand the eating habits of early humans.

Early humans flocked to reindeer meat when the temperature dropped, J. Tyler Faith discovered.

"We see a steady increase in the abundance of reindeer, associated with declines in summer temperature," Faith said.