What was the principal means of livelihood during the Palaeolithic age?

Palaeolithic communities lived mainly by hunting animals and gathering wild plants, fruits and roots. Settled agriculture and large-scale animal husbandry developed later, while long-distance organised trade was not the principal subsistence base. The evidence must connect patronage, place and historical period simultaneously. Hunting and gathering fits that evidence because it matches the specific chronology, agency and function contained in the question. A comparison with the alternatives is useful: Animal husbandry alone, Settled agriculture and Long-distance trade are genuine historical terms or names, but each belongs to a different office, patron, text, region or sequence. Reading the question as a relationship among person, period, place and institutional purpose prevents that mistake. The compact memory link is therefore Hunting and gathering together with the factual context above, not the isolated option letter.