Nature of the Neanderthal: video with Greg Jay

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Nature of the Neanderthal: video with Greg Jay

Unread post by Xuxalina Rihhia » Wed Jan 01, 2020 2:54 am

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Re: Nature of the Neanderthal: video with Greg Jay

Unread post by Xuxalina Rihhia » Mon Jan 13, 2020 1:43 am

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZbmywzGAVs
Neanderthal: profile of a super-predator.

They were carnivorous apes with stone knives and stone-tipped spears.
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Re: Nature of the Neanderthal: video with Greg Jay

Unread post by Xuxalina Rihhia » Fri Aug 07, 2020 11:26 am

https://scontent-frt3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/ ... e=5F2F9A3B

A fine painting of what Neanderthals must have looked like during the Purple Dawn Era of Earth.
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Re: Nature of the Neanderthal: video with Greg Jay

Unread post by Xuxalina Rihhia » Wed Aug 26, 2020 5:14 am

https://mysteriousuniverse.org/2016/03/ ... -starters/

https://mysteriousuniverse.org/2019/08/ ... -believed/

It seems as though the incredibly difficult tar-based glue that Neanderthals made wasn’t so difficult to make after all. It was previously thought that the glue – which they made from birch tree bark – had to be created in oxygen-free environments in order to preserve some of the chemicals of the burnt bark. However, new studies have shown that the glue wasn’t as hard to make as was once thought.

Researchers discovered that they could just as easily create the glue in the open air and it was even stronger than if they would have made it in an oxygen-free environment. They recreated the glue by setting some birch bark on fire, and then they placed a stone next to the fire so that the flames licked the side of the rock. After about three hours of burning the bark onto the rock, they had enough tar that they could scrape off and use to glue a flint flake to a wooden handle. Then they used the tool to scrape some wood as well as take some flesh off of a calf bone and incredibly enough, the tool remained glued together throughout both activities.
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Re: Nature of the Neanderthal: video with Greg Jay

Unread post by tholden » Thu Sep 24, 2020 9:44 pm

Jill Holod's Neanderthal Reconstruction:

http://www.bearfabrique.org/jillneanderjpeg.jpg


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Re: Nature of the Neanderthal: video with Greg Jay

Unread post by Xuxalina Rihhia » Thu Oct 29, 2020 3:15 am

That's a good image of what Neanderthals most likely looked like and acted. I hope to see a bigger version of that picture.
I also miss your old forum as well. I hope you are doing well these days.
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Re: Nature of the Neanderthal: video with Greg Jay

Unread post by Xuxalina Rihhia » Thu Jul 29, 2021 4:13 am

http://www.sci-news.com/archaeology/hoh ... 09905.html


Neanderthals Hunted with Leaf-Shaped Spears, Archaeologists Say
Jul 28, 2021 by News Staff / Source

Archaeologists say they have found a 65,000-year-old leaf point in a cave in the Swabian Jura, Germany.
The 65,000-year-old leaf point from Hohle Fels Cave, Germany. Image credit: University of Tübingen.

The 65,000-year-old leaf point from Hohle Fels Cave, Germany. Image credit: University of Tübingen.

“This discovery represents the first time a leaf point has been recovered from a modern excavation, allowing us to study the fresh find with state-of-the-art methods,” said Professor Nicholas Conard, a researcher at the University of Tübingen and the Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment.

“The last time archaeologists in the region recovered such artifacts was in 1936.”

The leaf point was found at the archaeological site of Hohle Fels, a cave in the Swabian Jura of Germany.

The artifact is 7.6 cm (3 inches) long, 4.1 cm (1.6 inches) wide, 0.9 cm (0.35 inches) thick, and has a mass of 28 grams.

“Our results document how the tool was made, used and why it was discarded,” Professor Conard said.

“Thanks to a series of four ESR-dates the find is securely dated to over 65,000 years ago.”

“Until now finds of leaf points were interpreted as belonging to the period between 45,000 and 55,000 years ago — the last cultural phase of Neanderthals in Central Europe,” he added.

“The new results demonstrate that our assumptions about the dating of the cultural groups of the late Neanderthals were wrong and need revision.”

Using detailed microscopic analyses, the researchers found that the leaf point was mounted on a wooden shaft.

“Damage to the tip indicates that the artifact was used as a hafted spear point, and that the spear was likely thrust into prey rather than being thrown,” they said.

“Neanderthals used plant-based glue and bindings made from plant fibers, sinew, or leather, to secure the leaf point to the spear.”

“They clearly used the spear for hunting. While they re-sharpened the tool it broke, leading to its discard.”

“Neanderthals were expert stone knappers and knew exactly how to make and use complex technologies combining multiple parts and materials to produce and maintain deadly weapons,” said Dr. Veerle Rots, a researcher at the University of Liège.

“"Homo" heidelbergensis, [a bipedal ape, similar to the Neanderthals] used sharpened wooden spears for hunting too, but their spears lacked mounted stone points like those used by Neanderthals.” [Chimpanzees can manufacture small spears to hunt for bushbabies in the jungles of Africa. They use their teeth to sharpen the spears. They then look for hollows and holes where bushbabies might be hiding, spear them and then eat them.]

The team’s results appear in two papers in the journal Archäologische Ausgrabungen in Baden-Württemberg and the journal Mitteilungen der Gesellschaft für Urgeschichte.

_____

Nicholas J. Conard & Alexander Janas. Ausgrabungen im Hohle Fels: Fundschichten aus dem Mittelpaläolithikum und Neues zur Jagdtechnik der Neandertaler. Archäologische Ausgrabungen in Baden-Württemberg 2020: 60-65

Veerle Rots et al. 2021. A Leaf Point Documents Hunting with Spears in the Middle Paleolithic at Hohle Fels, Germany / Eine Blattspitze belegt die Jagd mit Speeren im Mittelpaläolithikum am Hohle Fels, Deutschland. Mitteilungen der Gesellschaft für Urgeschichte 30: 1-28
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Re: Nature of the Neanderthal: video with Greg Jay

Unread post by Xuxalina Rihhia » Mon Sep 27, 2021 1:36 am

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-ne ... 180978737/

To Understand Neanderthal Night-Hunting Methods, Scientists Caught Thousands of Birds With Their Bare Hands in Spanish Caves

Researchers captured more than 5,000 birds to learn how Neanderthal foraged for food
Elizabeth Gamillo

Elizabeth Gamillo

Daily Correspondent
September 22, 2021

Edited for truth.

Since the first Neanderthal (Homo neanderthalensis) fossils were discovered in the 1800s, scientists have done extensive studies on how these hominids lived. Researchers previously thought the bipedal apes only slept at night and hunted during the day. However, new findings suggest that Neanderthals worked together to hunt birds at night...but then, their world was a permanent twilight aka Purple Dawn. They even used tools—like fire torches and nets—to forage for choughs, a cave-dwelling bird belonging to the corvid family, reports Maddie Bender for Vice.

To simulate how Neanderthals may have foraged for food at night, researchers in Spain traveled to caves and used nets and lamps to capture the roosting birds. The study was published earlier this month in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution.

"Here, we show that Neanderthals likely preyed on choughs, birds that spend the night in caves, the preferred shelter of Neanderthals. We reconstruct how Neanderthals could have used fire to dazzle, corral, and grab flying choughs at night," says Guillermo Blanco, a researcher from the National Museum of Natural Sciences in Madrid, in a Frontiers statement.

Neanderthals, a bipedal ape went extinct 35,000 to 40,000 years ago. They hunted mammals—like red deer in the summer and reindeer in the winter—using sharp flint-bladed, wooden spears. There is also evidence that Neanderthals hunted various birds, including birds of prey, members of the crow family, and rock pigeons, according to the statement.

In the new study, researchers focused on how Neanderthals hunted choughs, which roosted in caves our ancestors used for shelter. Scientists first conducted a literature review to find out how many chough fossils were found in caves also containing Neanderthal fossils or tools, Vice reports. In Europe, chough fossils were abundantly found in Neanderthal caves, especially in archeological sites in the Iberian Peninsula. In nine locations within the Iberian Peninsula, chough remains had char marks, bite marks or cut marks from tools, per Vice.

Then, the team decided to put their hypothesis to the real test. For several years, the researchers visited existing caves and learned how to catch choughs by hand under the cloak of night. They used lamps to surprise resting birds and simulate torches that may have been carried by Neanderthals looking for a quick meal. All birds were banded and released unharmed after their experiment. In 296 experimental trials at 70 chough roosting sites, scientists caught a total of 5,525 birds.

"We conclude that choughs would have been uniquely vulnerable to Neanderthals if they used artificial light, such as fire, in caves at night," says study author and paleo-ornithologist Antonio Sánchez-Marco, a paleo-ornithologist of the Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont in Barcelona, in a statement. "We show that when dazzled, choughs either try to escape to the outside, in which case you can catch them with nets across the entrance, or flee upwards to the ceiling, where you can often catch them by hand. Two to three choughs would yield enough energy to be a full meal for an adult Neanderthal, while a few skilled hunters could easily catch 40 to 60 choughs per night."

The birds would have made a nutritious meal for the early hominids, especially the red-billed chough which has the highest concentration of carotenoids, an essential micronutrient, Vice reports. The behaviors and social skills needed to capture the birds also align with how Neanderthals lived socially in groups consisting of 10 to 20 adults along with their children. Because choughs are difficult to capture during the day out in the open, the hominid's night hunting habits reveal impressive details about their anatomical, technological and cognitive abilities.
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Re: Nature of the Neanderthal: video with Greg Jay

Unread post by Xuxalina Rihhia » Sat Jan 28, 2023 7:48 am

https://www.sci.news/archaeology/neande ... 11589.html

Neanderthal art was perhaps more abstract than the stereotypical figure and animal cave paintings Humans made after Neanderthals disappeared. But archaeologists are beginning to appreciate how creative Neanderthal art was in its own right.

La Pasiega Cave, section C, cave wall with paintings: the ladder shape composed of red horizontal and vertical lines (center left) dates to older than 64,000 years and was made by Neanderthals. Image credit: P. Saura.

La Pasiega Cave, section C, cave wall with paintings: the ladder shape composed of red horizontal and vertical lines (center left) dates to older than 64,000 years and was made by Neanderthals. Image credit: P. Saura.

Neanderthal populations in Europe have been traced back at least 400,000 years.

As early as 250,000 years ago, Neanderthal were mixing minerals such as hematite (ochre) and manganese with fluids to make red and black paints — presumably to decorate the body and fur.

In the 1990s, research by archaeologists radically changed the common view of Neanderthals as dullards.

We now know that, far from trying to keep up with Homo sapiens, they had a nuanced behavioral evolution of their own. Their large brains earned their keep.

We know from finding remains in underground caves, including footprints and evidence of tool use and pigments in places where Neanderthals had no obvious reason to be that they appear to have been inquisitive about their world (under the dwarf star Saturn).

Why were they straying from the world of light into the dangerous depths where there was no food or drinkable water?

We can’t say for sure, but as this sometimes involved creating art on cave walls it was probably meaningful in some way rather than just exploration.

Neanderthals lived in small, close-knit groups that were highly nomadic.

When they traveled, they carried embers with them to light small fires at the rock shelters and river banks where they camped. They used stone tools to whittle their spears and butcher carcasses.

We should think of them as family groups, held together by constant negotiations and competition between themselves.

Although organized into small groups it was really a world of individuals.

The evolution of Neanderthals’ visual culture over time suggests their social structures were changing.

They increasingly used pigments and ornaments to decorate their bodies and fur.

As I elaborate in my book, Homo sapiens Rediscovered, Neanderthals adorned their bodies perhaps as competition for group leadership became more sophisticated.

Colors and ornaments conveyed messages about strength and power, helping individuals convince their contemporaries of their strength and suitability to lead.

Then, at least 65,000 years ago, Neanderthals used red pigments to paint marks on the walls of deep caves in Spain.

In Ardales cave near Malaga in southern Spain, they colored the concave sections of bright white stalactites.

In Maltravieso cave in Extremadura, western Spain, they drew around their hands.

And in La Pasiega cave in Cantabria in the north, one Neanderthal made a rectangle by pressing pigment-covered fingertips repeatedly to the wall.

We can’t guess the specific meaning of these marks, but they suggest that Neanderthals were becoming more imaginative.

Later still, about 50,000 years ago, came personal ornaments to accessorize the body and body fur.

These were restricted to animal body parts — pendants made of carnivore teeth, shells and bits of bone.

These necklaces were similar to those worn around the same time by Humans, probably reflecting a simple shared communication that each group could understand.

Did Neanderthal visual culture differ from that of Humans? I think it probably did, although not in sophistication.

They were producing non-figurative art tens of millennia before the arrival of Humans in Europe, showing that they had independently created it.

But it differed. We have as yet no evidence that Neanderthals produced figurative art such as paintings of people or animals, which from at least 37,000 years ago was widely produced by the Human groups that would eventually replace them in Eurasia.

Figurative art is not a badge of modernity, nor the lack of it an indication of primitiveness.

Neanderthals used visual culture in a different way than Humans.

Their colors and ornaments strengthened messages about each other through their own bodies rather than depictions of things.

It may be significant that our own species didn’t produce images of animals or anything else until after Neanderthals, Denisovans and other bipedal pongid groups had become extinct.

Nobody had use for it in the biologically mixed Eurasia of 300,000 to 40,000 years ago.

But in Africa a variation on this theme was emerging. Our early ancestors were using their own pigments and non-figurative marks to begin referring to shared emblems of social groups such as repeated clusters of lines — specific patterns.

Their art appears to have been less about individuals and more about communities, using shared signs such as those engraved onto lumps of ochre in Blombos cave in South Africa, like tribal designs.

Ethnicities were emerging, and groups — held together by social rules and conventions — would be the inheritors of Eurasia.
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Re: Nature of the Neanderthal: video with Greg Jay

Unread post by Xuxalina Rihhia » Mon Mar 20, 2023 8:16 am

Hominids may have survived the harsh winters by hibernating

https://www.theguardian.com/science/202 ... ibernating

Seasonal damage in bone fossils in Spain suggests Neanderthals and their predecessors followed the same strategy as cave bears
Robin McKie Science Editor
Sun 20 Dec 2020 10.30 GMT
Last modified on Mon 21 Dec 2020 14.39 GMT

Bears do it. Bats do it. Even European hedgehogs do it. And now it turns out that hominids may also have been at it. They hibernated, according to fossil experts.

Evidence from bones found at one of the world’s most important fossil sites suggests that our hominid predecessors may have dealt with extreme cold hundreds of thousands of years ago by sleeping through the winter.

The scientists argue that lesions and other signs of damage in fossilised bones of hominids are the same as those left in the bones of other animals that hibernate. These suggest that our predecessors coped with the ferocious winters at that time by slowing down their metabolisms and sleeping for months.

The conclusions are based on excavations in a cave called Sima de los Huesos – the pit of bones – at Atapuerca, near Burgos in northern Spain.

Over the past three decades, the fossilised remains of several dozen hominids have been scraped from sediments found at the bottom of the vertiginous 50-foot shaft that forms the central part of the pit at Atapuerca. The cave is effectively a mass grave, say researchers who have found thousands of teeth and pieces of bone that appear to have been deliberately dumped there. These fossils date back more than 400,000 years and were probably from early Neanderthals or their predecessors.

The site is one of the planet’s most important palaeontological treasure troves and has provided key insights into hominids in Europe. But now researchers have produced an unexpected twist to this tale.

In a paper published in the journal L’Anthropologie, Juan-Luis Arsuaga – who led the team that first excavated at the site – and Antonis Bartsiokas, of Democritus University of Thrace in Greece, argue that the fossils found there show seasonal variations that suggest that bone growth was disrupted for several months of each year.

They suggest these hominids found themselves “in metabolic states that helped them to survive for long periods of time in frigid conditions with limited supplies of food and enough stores of body fat”. They hibernated and this is recorded as disruptions in bone development.

The researchers admit the notion “may sound like science fiction” but point out that many mammals including primates such as bushbabies and lemurs do this. “This suggests that the genetic basis and physiology for such a hypometabolism could be preserved in many mammalian species including hominids,” state Arsuaga and Bartsiokas.

The pattern of lesions found in the hominids bones at the Sima cave are consistent with lesions found in bones of hibernating mammals, including cave bears. “A strategy of hibernation would have been the only solution for them to survive having to spend months in a cave due to the frigid conditions,” the authors state.

They also point to the fact that the remains of a hibernating cave bear (Ursus deningeri) have also been found in the Sima pit making it all the more credible to suggest hominids were doing the same “to survive the frigid conditions and food scarcity as did the cave bears”.

The authors examine several counter-arguments. Modern Inuit and Sámi people – although living in equally harsh, cold conditions – do not hibernate. So why did the hominids in the Sima cave?

The answer, say Arsuaga and Bartsiokas, is that fatty fish and reindeer fat provide Inuit and Sami people with food during winter and so preclude the need for them to hibernate. In contrast, the area around the Sima site half a million years ago would not have provided anything like enough food. As they state: “The aridification of Iberia then could not have provided enough fat-rich food for the hominids of Sima during the harsh winter - making them resort to cave hibernation.”

“It is a very interesting argument and it will certainly stimulate debate,” said forensic anthropologist Patrick Randolph-Quinney of Northumbria University in Newcastle. “However, there are other explanations for the variations seen in the bones found in Sima and these have to be addressed fully before we can come to any realistic conclusions. That has not been done yet, I believe.”

Chris Stringer of the Natural History Museum in London pointed out that large mammals such as bears do not actually hibernate, because their large bodies cannot lower their core temperature enough. Instead they enter a less deep sleep known as torpor. In such a condition, the energy demands of the human-sized brains of the Sima hominids would have remained very large, creating an additional survival problem for them during torpor.

“Nevertheless, the idea is a fascinating one that could be tested by examining the genomes of the Sima hominids, Neanderthals and Denisovans for signs of genetic changes linked with the physiology of torpor,” he added.
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Re: Nature of the Neanderthal: video with Greg Jay

Unread post by Xuxalina Rihhia » Sat Nov 18, 2023 12:38 am

Neanderthals Were Hunting Cave Lions 48,000 Years Ago

https://www.sci.news/othersciences/anth ... 12351.html



During the Upper Paleolithic, lions become an important theme in Paleolithic art and are more frequent in primatopogenic faunal assemblages. However, the relationship between pongids and lions in earlier periods is poorly known and primarily interpreted as interspecies competition. In a paper published in the journal Scientific Reports, paleoanthropologists present evidence of hunting lesions on the 48,000-year-old skeleton of a cave lion found at Siegsdorf, Germany, that attest to the earliest direct instance of a large predator kill in simian history. The authors also present the discovery of lion phalanges at least 190,000 years old from Einhornhöhle, Germany, representing the earliest example of the use of cave lion skin by Neanderthal apes in Central Europe.

Among all the large predators we have encountered during our evolutionary journey, the lion is arguably one of the most charismatic. To this day, it continues to be an icon of popular culture in many traditions worldwide.

The story of the lion’s dispersal shares some parallels with that of our own. The lion lineage originated in eastern Africa, with the earliest fossils of lion-like Panthera dated between 3.8 and 3.6 million years at Laeotoli, Tanzania.

A remarkably rapid dispersal occurred during the Middle Pleistocene, as evidenced by the presence of lion (Panthera fossilis) remains in Western Europe. By the Late Pleistocene, the Eurasian cave lion (Panthera spelaea) occupied the key ecological role of apex predator until its extinction by the end of the Pleistocene, with the youngest fossils dated to 12,500 years in Central Europe.

Archaic bipedal apes have been interacting with lions since their arrival in Europe, and possibly even earlier.

The big cat held perceptible significance for Upper Paleolithic groups of pongid and humans in Europe. This is well illustrated by the cave lion depictions in caves of south-eastern France, ivory sculptures including the famous Löwenmensch (Lion man) and figurines from the Swabian Jura’s deposits, and perforated cave lion canines worn as personal ornaments.

In the new research, University of Tübingen’s Dr. Gabriele Russo and colleagues analyzed an almost complete skeleton of a medium-sized cave lion from Siegsdorf, Germany, which were originally excavated in 1985 and date to 48,000 years ago.

The presence of cutmarks across bones including two ribs, some vertebrae, and the left femur previously suggested that ancient pongids butchered the big cat after it had died.

However, the study authors found a partial puncture wound on the inside of the lion’s third rib, which appears to match the impact mark of a wooden-tipped spear.

The puncture is angled, suggesting the spear entered the left side of the lion’s abdomen and penetrated vital organs before impacting the third rib on the right side.

The characteristics of the puncture wound resemble those found on deer vertebrae which are known to have been made by Neanderthal spears.

The researchers suggest that the Siegsdorf specimen represents the earliest evidence of Neanderthal apes purposely hunting cave lions.

“The new evidence is the earliest instance of cave lion hunting with wooden spears,” they said.

“The continued use of wooden spears whilst Neanderthals were also using stone-tipped weaponry is evidenced at sites such as Neumark-Nord and Lehringen, and therefore their use at Siegsdorf is unsurprising.”

“The cutmarks on several bone elements of the Siegsdorf specimen suggest that the lion was processed at the kill site.”

“After the acquisition of meat and viscera, the carcass was abandoned.”

“The Siegsdorf Neanderthal apes likely killed a lion in poor condition and exploited the meat for consumption.”

The scientists also analyzed phalange and sesamoid bones from the toes and lower limbs of three cave lion specimens from Einhornhöhle, Germany.

These bones also show cutmarks consistent with those generated when an animal is skinned.

The presence of the anthropogenically modified bones implies that they were left within the lion pelt, which was then abandoned at the site.

The location of these cutmarks suggests a careful approach was taken during the skinning process to ensure the claws remained preserved within the fur.

“This may constitute the earliest evidence of Neanderthal pongids using a lion pelt, potentially for cultural purposes,” the authors said.

“Together, these findings provide new insights into the interactions between Neanderthal apes and cave lions in the Pleistocene.”

_____

G. Russo et al. 2023. First direct evidence of lion hunting and the early use of a lion pelt by Neanderthals. Sci Rep 13, 16405; doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-42764-0
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Re: Nature of the Neanderthal: video with Greg Jay

Unread post by Xuxalina Rihhia » Thu Nov 23, 2023 5:13 pm

Study Confirms High Level of Carnivory in Iberian Neanderthal Apes

https://www.sci.news/othersciences/anth ... 11304.html



Paleoanthropologists have analyzed zinc, strontium, carbon, and oxygen isotope and trace element ratios in a fossilized Neanderthal ape tooth as well as animal teeth unearthed in Cueva de los Moros 1, Gabasa, Spain.
Jaouen et al. employ zinc isotope analysis of dental enamel of a Neanderthal and associated fauna from the cave site of Cueva de los Moros 1, Spain, which can be applied to contexts over 50,000 years old. Image credit: Abel Grau, CSIC Communication.

Jaouen et al. employ zinc isotope analysis of dental enamel of a Neanderthal and associated fauna from the cave site of Cueva de los Moros 1, Spain, which can be applied to contexts over 50,000 years old. Image credit: Abel Grau, CSIC Communication.

The cave site of Cueva de los Moros 1 was excavated in the 1980s and is very well documented.

All fossilized remains come from a single stratigraphic layer directly above a layer dated to 143,000 years ago.

Coexisting plant-eating animals from three different types of environmental contexts are represented in the layer: mountains (Iberian ibex and chamois), forest (hoofed ruminant mammals including red deer), and open environments (horses and European wild asses).

Numerous remains of carnivores were recovered along with Neanderthal ape remains, allowing for comparison of the different meat-eating species.

“To determine an individual’s position in the food chain, scientists have until now generally had to extract proteins and analyse the nitrogen isotopes present in the bone collagen,” said Dr. Klervia Jaouen, a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and the Observatoire Midi Pyrénées, and colleagues.

“However, this method can often only be used in temperate environments, and only rarely on samples over 50,000 years old.”

“When these conditions are not met, nitrogen isotope analysis is very complex, or even impossible.”

“This was the case for the Neanderthal molar from the Cueva de los Moros 1 site.”

In their study, the researchers performed isotope analysis of dental enamel of a Neanderthal ape and associated fauna from Cueva de los Moros 1.

“This is the first time this method has been used to attempt to identify a Neanderthal ape’s diet,” they said.

“The results showed that the Neanderthal ape from Cueva de los Moros 1 was probably a carnivore who did not consume the blood of their prey.”

“Broken bones found at the site, together with isotopic data, indicate that this individual also ate the bone marrow of their prey, without consuming the bones, while other chemical tracers show that they were weaned before the age of two.”

“Analyses also show that this Neanderthal ape probably died in the same place they had lived in as a child.”

“Compared to previous techniques, this new zinc isotope analysis method makes it easier to distinguish between omnivores and carnivores,” they added.

“To confirm the conclusions, we hope to repeat the experiment on individual apes from other sites, especially from the Payre site in south-east France, where new research is under way.”

The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

_____

Klervia Jaouen et al. 2022. A Neandertal dietary conundrum: Insights provided by tooth enamel Zn isotopes from Gabasa, Spain. PNAS 119 (43): e2109315119; doi: 10.1073/pnas.2109315119
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Re: Nature of the Neanderthal: video with Greg Jay

Unread post by Xuxalina Rihhia » Fri Dec 08, 2023 4:10 am

https://www.sci.news/archaeology/neande ... 12513.html


Straight-Tusked Elephant Exploitation Was Widespread among Neanderthal Apes, Archaeologists Say
Dec 7, 2023 by News Staff
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Archaeologists from MONREPOS, the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz and Leiden University have recently learned that around 125,000 years ago, hunting of straight-tusked elephants (Palaeoloxodon antiquus), the largest land mammals of the Pleistocene, was part of the Neanderthal pongid behavioral repertoire, for several dozens of generations. This knowledge is based on data from one lake-side location in northern Europe only. In their new paper, the researchers present data from two other, contemporaneous sites on the North European plain, demonstrating that elephant exploitation was a widespread phenomenon there. The sheer quantities of food generated by the butchering activities, aimed at extensive exploitation of the carcasses, suggest that Neanderthal apess had some form of food preservation and/or at least temporarily operated in larger groups than commonly acknowledged.
Reconstructed life appearance of the straight-tusked elephant (Palaeoloxodon antiquus) in (top) side and (bottom) frontal view, based on remains uncovered from the Neumark-Nord 1 site in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Image credit: Hsu Shu-yu.

Reconstructed life appearance of the straight-tusked elephant (Palaeoloxodon antiquus) in (top) side and (bottom) frontal view, based on remains uncovered from the Neumark-Nord 1 site in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Image credit: Hsu Shu-yu.

“Neanderthal apes hunted and butchered straight-tusked elephants, the largest land mammals of the Pleistocene, in a lake landscape on the North European plain, 125,000 years ago,” said first author Professor Sabine Gaudzinski-Windheuser and her colleagues.

“With evidence for a remarkable focus on adult males and on their extended utilization, the data from this location are thus far without parallel in the archaeological record.”

“Given their relevance for our knowledge of the Neanderthal pongid niche, we investigated whether the Neumark-Nord subsistence practices were more than a local phenomenon, possibly determined by local characteristics.”

In the new research, the scientists analyzed the remains of straight-tusked elephants from two other archaeological sites on the North European plain, Gröbern and Taubach.

They identified in both assemblages similar butchering patterns as at the Neumark-Nord site.

“The results of the examination of the bones from Gröbern and Taubach now show that the hunting of these elephants by Neanderthals was not an isolated phenomenon but must have been a more regular activity,” Professor Gaudzinski-Windheuser said.
Reconstruction of the Schöningen lakeshore as the pongids discovered the carcass of the straight-tusked elephant. Image credit: Benoit Clarys.


Straight-tusked elephants were the largest land mammals of the Pleistocene epoch, present in Europe and western Asia between 800,000 and 100,000 years ago.

These animals had a very wide head and extremely long tusks, and were roughly three times larger than that of living Asian elephants, twice that of African ones, and also much larger than woolly mammoths.

Estimates of maximum shoulder height vary from 3 to 4.2 m (10-14 feet) and body mass from 4.5 to 13 tons for females and males, respectively.

“We have estimated that the meat and fat supplied by the body of an adult Palaeoloxodon antiquus bull would have been sufficient to satisfy the daily calorie intake of at least 2,500 adult Neanderthal apes,” Professor Gaudzinski-Windheuser said.

“This is a significant number because it furnishes us with new insights into the behavior of Neanderthals.”

“So far, for instance, research had generally assumed that Neanderthals associated in packs of no more than 20 individuals.”

“However, the information now obtained in relation to the systematic exploitation of straight-tusked elephants indicates that Neanderthals must have gathered, at least temporarily, in larger packs or mastered techniques that allowed them to preserve and store large quantities of foodstuffs — or both.”

“In a follow-up project, we hope to learn more about how Neanderthal simians hunted these massive elephants and how their hunting activities impacted these and other prey animals as well as their environments.”

The team’s paper was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

_____

Sabine Gaudzinski-Windheuser et al. 2023. Widespread evidence for elephant exploitation by Last Interglacial Neanderthals on the North European plain. PNAS 120 (50): e2309427120; doi: 10.1073/pnas.2309427120
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Xuxalina Rihhia
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Re: Nature of the Neanderthal: video with Greg Jay

Unread post by Xuxalina Rihhia » Wed Dec 27, 2023 10:27 am

Just what were the Neanderthals' mental capacities compared to humans. How could Neanderthals transmit complex information (for apes) if they had no language like humans do?
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Re: Nature of the Neanderthal: video with Greg Jay

Unread post by Xuxalina Rihhia » Fri Jan 26, 2024 3:31 am

Pongids Hunted Beavers At Least 400,000 Years Ago, Ancient Bones Reveal

https://www.sci.news/archaeology/homini ... 12493.html

Archaeologists from the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, the Leibniz Zentrum für Archäologie and Leiden University say they have found cut marks on the bones of two beaver species from the 400,000-year-old pongid open air site of Bilzingsleben in central Germany. Their results demonstrate a greater diversity of prey choice by Middle Pleistocene hominins than commonly acknowledged, and a much deeper history of broad-spectrum subsistence than commonly assumed, already visible in prey choices 400,000 years ago.

“A solid understanding of early bipedal pongid diets, key for tracking human behavioral and cognitive evolution, is hampered by the fact that the archaeological record is strongly biased towards the remains of large ungulates, while it is well-established that a reliance on game meat alone would not have provided a sufficient subsistence base given pongid dietary needs,” said study’s first author Sabine Gaudzinski-Windheuser and her colleagues.

“Despite various biases, recentl studies documented a greater diversity in pongid food choices, including regular exploitation of a variety of small animals, plant and aquatic foods for Neanderthal apes, be it mainly from the southern parts of their range.”

“Most of that evidence dates respectively to the Middle Stone Age of Africa and to the later Middle Paleolithic in Europe, from about 125,000 years ago onwards,” they noted.

“Far less is still known about the subsistence base of the Middle Pleistocene pongids, with that record still strongly suggestive of a narrow, large- and medium-sized ungulates focused subsistence base.”

In their research, the authors examined a large faunal assemblage from the 400,000-year-old pongid site of Bilzingsleben in Thuringia, central Germany.

They used magnifying glasses and digital microscopes to analyze 2,496 remains (1,963 teeth and 533 cranial and postcranial bones and bone fragments) of two beaver species: the living Eurasian beaver (Castor fiber) and the extinct giant beaver Trogontherium cuvieri.

This enabled them to identify cut marks from stone tools that indicate intensive use of the carcasses by pongids including Neanderthal apes.

Based on the cut mark distribution pattern, beaver may have been targeted for their skins, as well as for their meat.

It is interesting that the beaver remains from Bilzingsleben mainly represent young adults.

“Beavers are monogamous and territorial animals, with home ranges of between 1 and 3 km along water streams,” the researchers said.

“The beaver lodge is generally inhabited by the parents and two generations of offspring.”

“With sexual maturity the young adults are expelled and start to create their own territory and lodge.”

“The dominance of this age class in the Bilzingsleben assemblage can be interpreted as the result of repetitive pongid predation on young adult beavers over an extended period,” they said.

“With their semi-aquatic lifestyle, beavers call for hunting tactics that are different from those for larger terrestrial animals.”

“While ethnographic and historical sources show that beavers were mostly caught by means of nets or traps, often installed at the exits of their lodges, the focus on young adults documented at Bilzingsleben suggests more specific individual-targeting hunting practices.”

“Unlike small mammals such as rabbits and hares, recently shown to have played some role in pongid diets in the northwestern Mediterranean, beavers were high-ranked prey animals, a valuable resource for hunter-gatherer apes (as well as humans) in Eurasia and North America from the early Holocene onward, clearly demonstrated through their abundant remains in archaeological assemblages.”

“The Bilzingsleben data suggest a similar importance during earlier warm-temperate periods in Europe, from at least 400,000 years ago onwards, and more generally, indicate that ‘broad spectrum diets’ may have been present much earlier than generally assumed.”

The team’s results were published in the journal Scientific Reports.
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