Special displays
Stone tools from the excavations at Gorham's Cave in Gibraltar are on display. Flint and red chert tools like these were probably used by Neanderthals as spear points for hunting.
From time to time our special display cases house small displays of unusual or extraordinary specimens and information about topical themes. The cases are opposite the Human Biology gallery in Dinosaur Way in the Blue Zone.
Thanks for all the fish: new research about Neanderthal diets
25 September to December 2008
Over 40,000 years ago, in Gibraltar, a group of Neanderthal people were living in caves hunting local animals for food.
Scientists already knew this group hunted on land, and ate mostly meat , so imagine their surprise when among the remains of butchered animals, they also found dolphins, seals, shellfish and fish.
Neanderthals lived at the same time as modern humans, but they are not our ancestors, just a similar species that died out.
Scientists had already found Neanderthal remains in sites further north that proved they ate meat, but this find and others along the Mediterranean showed they also ate seafood.
Come and see some real Neanderthal tools and a replica skull of a Neanderthal woman in our special display.
Read more about Neanderthal's marine diet in the latest news
The Museum's smallest members of staff are our flesh-eating beetles, Dermestes maculates, who strip carcasses to the bone.