article_snippet.sent: Stone Age man ate mushrooms as part of mushrooms diet, a study on ancient tooth plaque has revealed.
article_snippet.sent: Anthropologists studying the remains of a prehistoric woman nicknamed The Red Lady of El Mirón have found spores of several mushroom species embedded in a prehistoric woman nicknamed The Red Lady of El Mirón teeth.
article_snippet.sent: The images above show some of the microscopic fungal spores from grilled fungi (left) and bolete fungi (right) that the researchers found trapped inside the hardened dental plaque on the Red Lady of El Mirón teeth .
article_snippet.sent: a study on ancient tooth plaque now provides the oldest evidence yet that mushrooms were eaten by early humans and helps to shed new light on the mysterious Red Lady.
article_snippet.sent: This finding at El Mirón Cave could be the earliest indication of human mushroom use or consumption, which until this point has been unidentified in the Palaeolithic.'
article_snippet.sent: Bolete mushrooms include Boletus edulis, which is also called porchini.
article_snippet.sent: There is some evidence from neolithic and Bronze Age sites in Piedmont in the Italian Alps that suggest psychotropic mushrooms were used in rituals.
article_snippet.sent: This plant fragment was discovered in the hardened plaque on the teeth of the Red Lady of El Mirón .
article_snippet.sent: Mr Power and Dr Amanda Henry, whose work is published in the Journal of Archaeological Science also found the remains of pollen from pine trees and spores from the fungi.
article_snippet.sent: It is possible the fungi had been used to help flavour food or as a medicine.
article_snippet.sent: The Tryolean Iceman 'Otzi' - who lived around 3,000 years ago - was found to be carrying several types of fungi.
highlights_snippet.sent: The plaque showed signs of plant pollen and several mushroom spores .
  
highlights_snippet.sent: It is the earliest evidence for humans eating mushrooms yet discovered .
  
highlights_snippet.sent: Researchers say the mushrooms may have flavoured the Red Lady's diet .