Neanderthals: Top-Notch Hunters

Discovery News ^ | 2-1-2006 | Rossella Lorenzi

[blam]

Neanderthals: Top-Notch Hunters

By Rossella Lorenzi, Discovery News

Neanderthal And Modern Humans

Feb. 1, 2006— Neanderthals did not disappear because modern humans were better hunters and thus out-competed them for resources, according to U.S. and Israeli anthropologists. On the contrary, they were top predators who knew how to hunt the biggest and fastest of the animals.

Neanderthals went extinct about 30,000 years ago, after having inhabited Europe and parts of Asia for roughly 200,000 years. The reason for their demise has been long debated and frequently attributed to modern humans' greater intelligence and consequently greater hunting skills.

However, evidence from animal remains hunted by Neanderthals clearly indicates that these hominids were as good as any early modern humans at hunting, Daniel Adler, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, and colleagues report in the February issue of the journal Current Anthropology.

The researchers examined abundant faunal remains, in particular thousands of bones belonging to a mountain goat species called the Caucasian tur that still exists today.

The trove was excavated at Ortvale Klde, a rock shelter in the southern Caucasus in the Republic of Georgia dated to 60,000-20,000 years ago.

There was no doubt that the animals were hunted and killed. Indeed, the bones featured cut marks from human butchering and fragmentations typical of marrow consumption, showing that meat processing behaviors were not significantly different between Neanderthals and modern humans.

"Given the abundance of animals, one might think that Neanderthals would kill as many animals as possible, regardless of age, and therefore nutritional returns," Adler told Discovery News.

But analysis of tooth wear revealed that two-thirds of the animals were animals of prime age, the strongest, fastest, most nutritious and most difficult to capture members of the herd.

"Neanderthals, like the modern humans that followed them, were quite savvy, choosing instead to maximize their dietary intake per energy expended by hunting prime age adults.

"Given the species involved and the rough terrain, this would require sophisticated hunting tactics, (and) knowledge of animal behavior, in particular migration routes and flight behavior, and group cooperation," Adler said.

Neanderthals timed their hunts for late fall to early spring, during the Caucasian tur's seasonal migration to lower elevations, where the site of Ortvale Klde is located.

"They maintained an intimate relationship with their environment and were capable of understanding exactly where and when particular resources could be found in abundance," Adler said.

According to archaeologist John Shea, of Stony Brook University on Long Island, N.Y., "the study is excellent, precisely what is needed: a comparison of how Neanderthals and modern humans used the same landscape close enough in time so that any differences discovered reflect behavioral differences and not environmental ones."

Shea believes that multiple factors, varying from region to region, may have played a role in the disappearance of Neanderthals.

"The simple answer to the question of why Neanderthals became extinct is 'nobody knows,' but studies like this one certainly move us a lot closer to being able to make more clearly testable hypotheses. Now the hypothesis that Neanderthals became extinct because they were ineffective hunters is in deep trouble," Shea told Discovery News.

[blam]

"The simple answer to the question of why Neanderthals became extinct is 'nobody knows.'

We are Neanderthals, they became us.

[blam]

GGG Ping.

[mlc9852]

Did they have language?

[wideawake]

I thought they did Geico commercials.

[ASA Vet]

Red Heads are good looking hunters.

[luvbach1]

We are Neanderthals, they became us.

Although speculation is rife that Neanderthals may have interbred with Cro-magnon (physiologically modern humans), the relatively recent period in which they (the Neanderthals) were extant would not have allowed enough time for them to have fully evolved into modern humans.Most anthropologists believe the Neanderthal and Cro-magnon co-existed for a time. If that's true they must have evolved separately.

[massgopguy]

Ha Ha Neanderthals. Can't make fire. - Far Side

[Brazoria Bound]

Interesting story on your note there, but I was talking once to a archaeologist who also dabbled in ancient history. He had a great observation that was totally unprovable:

Centaurs in ancient writings were actually Neanderthals, for two reasons; 1) Through the handing down of oral tradition, the Neanderthals didn't actually have horse's legs, but since they were more tied into nature, they ran more like animals, uninhibited by reason how fast and long they could run, like how a chimp with smaller muscle mass than humans can outperform us in physical tasks 2) Centaurs were famous herbal healers, and Neanderthals, again being tied into close to nature, would have a more robust knowledge of natural medical cures than the detached Greeks, who depended on their philosophy to arrive at medical goals

Like I said, totally unprovable, but it makes for a great mental exercise of what might be...

[Kenny Bunk]

We are Neanderthals, they became us.

I don't think they "evolved" into us. The Cro-Magnons more than likely cross-bred with them and vice-versa..

BTW, the illustration looks like a late-model, good-lookin' Neanderthal

[Kenny Bunk]

We are Neanderthals, they became us.

I don't think they "evolved" into us. The Cro-Magnons more than likely cross-bred with them and vice-versa..

BTW, the illustration looks like a late-model, good-lookin' Neanderthal!

[sheik yerbouty]

They have their own niche in Hollywood..

[lilylangtree]

Didn't become extinct. Neanderthals (the world still has them) evolved.

[sheik yerbouty]

Yes, but their voice box is quite high in the throat, possibly an Ice Age adaptation. Speech would be somewhat less articulate..

[pabianice]

The peaceful Neanderthals went extinct about 30,000 years ago, after having inhabited Europe and parts of Asia for roughly 200,000 years, killed by Global Warming caused by fires set by early European modern man...

[<1/1,000,000th%]

Neanderthals went extinct about 30,000 years ago, after having inhabited Europe and parts of Asia for roughly 200,000 years.

The Neanderthals were hunted to extinction by tribal leader Bushgar after a series of terror attacks on Homo Sapien cultural centers. /sarcasm

[sheik yerbouty]

The advent of good cutting tools obviated the need for massive physical strength which their bone structure indicates. Hence, thos born Neanderthals who were less robust had a better chance to survive.

[Kenny Bunk]

This just in from France:

Anatomically modern humans have long been thought to have been responsible for the Aurignacian and Chatelperronian industries of the early Upper Palaeolithic of Western Europe, whereas the Middle Palaeolithic Mousterian industry has been attributed to Neanderthals.

The presence of both Middle and Upper Palaeolithic strata at Saint-Cesaire in France offers an excellent opportunity for studying the cultural transition between the two. Saint-Cesaire is the only Chatelperronian site that has yielded really diagnostic hominid fossils, and the discovery there of Neanderthal remains alongside Chatelperronian tools cast doubt on the exclusive association between industries and taxon.

We report thermoluminescence dates for 20 burnt flints from the site. Those found near the Neanderthal remains were dated at 36,300 +/- 2,700 years BP (before present), making this specimen the youngest Neanderthal dated so far. This date places the stratum close in age to several French but much younger than some Spanish Aurignacian sites believed to have been occupied by modern humans.

The possibility of contact between the West European Neanderthals and the intrusive modern humans who replaced them cannot therefore be excluded.

[mlc9852]

Could they have bred?

[JAWs]

We are Neanderthals,

Me resent remark. Ugh. Me express disagreement with me club!

[bpjam]

Top reasons that Neaderthals became extinct:

1. Not enough global warming.

2. Lack of comprehensive universal health care.

3. No Family Leave Act.

4. All the females died in back alley abortions because Neaderthal men wouldn't let them have 'choice.'

5. Second Hand Smoke.

6. Neaderthals were replaced by cheaper foreign Cro-Magnon men due to rampant outsourcing as a result of bad trade deals which failed to require environmental and labor standards on competitors.

7. Chuck Norris killed them all

.....

I could do this all day. Anybody else want in?