Neandertals dove and harvested clamshells for tools near Italy’s shores

Stone Age human relatives shed their reputation as one-trick mammoth hunters

clamshells

Surface characteristics of clamshells such as these, found in a coastal Italian cave, suggest that Neandertals gathered the shells on a beach and in shallow water before sharpening their edges for use as tools.

P. Villa et al/PLOS ONE 2020

Often typecast as spear-wielding mammoth killers, some Neandertals were beachcombers and surf divers, researchers say.