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THE TELEGRAPH (London, UK) 05 August 08 Lazy cavemen preferred catching tortoises to sabre-toothed tigers (Graham Tibbetts)
Cavemen who struggled to summon up the stamina for chasing sabre-toothed tigers turned their hand to hunting tortoises instead, newly-discovered fossils suggest.
The remains of 500 tortoises were found in caves known to be home to pre-historic hunter gatherers
It follows the discovery of the remains of more than 500 tortoises in a cave in Spain.
The breed, Hermann's Tortoise, was the same as the one most commonly used today as pets.
It was found along with hundreds of other animal remains in the Bolomor Caves around the town of Tavernes which were home to hunter gatherers.
The large number of tortoises suggests that the inhabitants realised they represented a handier food source than fleeter-footed prey such as tigers and woolly mammoths.
However, tortoises may not have proved as easy to catch as many would think.
In other parts of the world, tribes that have been known to eat tortoises have lured them from underground burrows with bowls of water, so some hunting may have been required.
The discovery has excited fossil experts from the University of Tarragona.
Several tortoise skeletons contain human toothmarks and cracks in their shells caused by their hunters.
It indicates that the whole animal was cooked, upside down, and the shell cracked off. This would have been achieved either by hurling the roasted snack against the cave wall until it cracked or hitting it with a blunt object like a rock.
There are also signs that once cracked, the limbs and bones were cut off by hand and tooth.
The palaeontologists at the University of Tarragona said: "The exact technique used by the humans to obtain these reptiles is uncertain based on the data available.
"But it does appear they used systematic patterns to process them, including cooking them, fracturing the shell and defleshing them for consumption."
It is now believed the tortoises were among the most common meals eaten by the early Spanish cavemen, along with rabbit, deer and, much later, domesticated pigs and cattle.
Lazy cavemen preferred catching tortoises to sabre-toothed tigers

THE TELEGRAPH (London, UK) 06 August 08 Not so fast food
Cavemen enjoy an undeservedly sporty image. We picture them pursuing mammoths or facing sharp-fanged tigers with flint-headed spears. But now palaeontologists have found evidence that our troglodyte forebears preferred consuming ready meals in the comfort of their own caves.
More than 500 tortoise shells have been found in a cave near Tarragona in Spain. Tortoises could hide, but they couldn't run. An hour or so in a pile of hot ashes at Mark 4 would be just the thing for an evening at home with the family in front of the flat-screen cave-paintings.
Since palaeolithic council tax did not guarantee a regular refuse service, the tortoise packaging tended to pile up. There is no reason to suppose our ancestors were any better than we are. If cavemen did not run the risk of obesity, it must have been only because of the limited number of tortoises.
Not so fast food