Maggots may be the secret ingredient responsible for extremely high nitrogen values found in Neanderthal remains, new research suggests. The work challenges an established theory that Late Pleistocene hominins ate as much fatty meat as lions, wolves, and other hypercarnivores. Eurasian Neanderthal remains have very high nitrogen isotope values, on par with those typically seen in hypercarnivores at the top of the food web. Archaeologists originally attributed these extremely high levels to heavy consumption of mammoth and other large land species. “While it is possible for humans to subsist on a very ‘carnivorous’ diet, many traditional northern hunter-gatherers such as the Inuit subsisted mostly on animal foods, hominins simply cannot tolerate the high levels of protein consumption that large predators can,” Melanie Beasley and colleagues note. They point towards an alternate nitrogen source: maggots. Ethnographic records report that some Indigenous cultures historically consumed putrefied food ripe with larvae for extra nutrients. Beasley et al. theorize that Neanderthals probably did as well. To confirm that maggots can even contain such high nitrogen values, they conducted stable nitrogen isotope ratio analyses on 389 larvae from three fly families (Calliphoridae, Piophilidae, and Stratiomyidae) gathered from the flesh of postmortem donors putrefying over two years in a forensic anthropology laboratory. Results showed that the maggots had far greater nitrogen values (as high as 43.2%) than the levels present in tissue and decomposed tissue alone. “It is the maggots, more so than the carcass tissues themselves, that gave Late Pleistocene hominins both a rich source of fat and a very highly ¹⁵N-enriched source of protein,” Beasley et al. conclude.

Genomic insights into Greenland’s iconic sled dog reveal a rich history of Inuit migration and Arctic adaptation, according to a new study. The findings provide a crucial guide for preserving the ancient breed amid climate threats and rapid cultural change. For over 9,500 years, sled dogs have been a central part of Arctic life. While many Arctic sled dog breeds have been replaced, mixed with other dogs, or shifted into domestic roles, the Greenland sled dog, or Qimmeq (pl. Qimmit), has uniquely preserved its traditional role as a working sled dog. However, this ancient working relationship now faces modern threats: climate change, urbanization, and modern technologies like snowmobiles are rapidly eroding the conditions that have long supported Qimmit and their traditional role. The ongoing decline in Qimmeq population underscores the urgency of documenting their remaining genetic diversity to guide conservation efforts. To reconstruct the breed’s history, Tatiana Feuerborn and colleagues sequenced genomes from 92 dogs across Greenland spanning the past 800 years, capturing both ancient and modern individuals, and compared them with over 1,900 published dog genomes. Feuerborn et al. discovered that Qimmit form a distinct clade with other ancient Arctic dogs – most notably a 3,700-year-old Alaskan dog. This genetic continuity, despite thousands of years and great geographic distances, supports the theory of a rapid Inuit migration across the North American Arctic. Notably, the authors found that the genetic differentiation among regional dog populations mirrors the cultural and linguistic divisions of the indigenous peoples of Greenland. Moreover, the analysis revealed further evidence of two distinct migrations of dogs into Greenland, with data that indicate an earlier-than-expected arrival of people to the region. Feuerborn et al. also show that despite European colonization of Greenland, there is minimal European ancestry in present-day Qimmit, likely due to overall isolation of the populations and more modern preservation policies. “These insights into the Qimmit provide a baseline for levels of inbreeding and introgression that can serve as a foundation for informed management aimed at the preservation of these remarkable dogs,” write the authors. “Studies such as this demonstrate the relevance of paleogenomic insight into current conversations and decisions centered around conservation and preservation of culturally significant species.”

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