One of the most fascinating papers of the year for me is a study that used oxygen isotopes to track season of harvesting of top snails and limpets by Neanderthals in what is now Spain, 115,000 years ago. The researchers found the snails were mostly harvested in the winter months. There are many possible reasons, including that Neanderthals might have moved inland to hunt terrestrial animals in the summer, sticking to the coast in the winter. But interestingly, summer is a time that modern Europeans avoid consuming some species due to the risk of harmful algal toxin contamination, and the snails also might have been more palatable in the winter to Neanderthals, as that is the season they're bulking up before spring reproduction. Maybe all of the above! Either way, really cool to see that the wealth of the sea unites us with our cousins/ancestors, the Neanderthals. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2531880123