Were Neanderthals stoned to death by modern humans?

New Scientist ^ | Thursday, November 20, 2008 | Ewen Callaway

[SunkenCiv]

Human aerial bombardments might have pushed Neanderthals to extinction, suggests new research. Changes in bone shape left by a life of overhand throwing hint that Stone Age humans regularly threw heavy objects, such as stones or spears, while Neanderthals did not...

Jill Rhodes, a biological anthropologist at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania... and a colleague studied changes to the arm bone that connects the shoulder to the elbow -- the humerus -- to determine when humans may have begun using projectile weapons...

Studies of elite handball and baseball players suggest that frequent overhand throwing from an early age permanently rotates the shoulder-end of the humerus toward an athlete's back, compared to people who haven't spent much time hurling.

This bone rotation only occurs in the throwing arm, so a difference between the right and left arm in fossils could be a sign of projectile use, Rhodes says.

To find out, she and Churchill measured humerus bones from Neanderthals and ancient and modern humans.

They found some evidence for projectile use in male European humans from around 26,000 to 28,000 years ago -- the middle Palaeolithic period -- who would have been contemporaries of Neanderthals. Their right humerus bones were generally more rotated toward their back than their left, while Rhodes's team noticed no such asymmetry in Neanderthal arms...

This could leave open the door for occasional uses of projectiles during the period when Neanderthals and humans might have interacted. A Neanderthal rib bone that shows signs of damage inflicted by a thrown spear is tantalizing evidence for a more nefarious use of projectile weapons.

[shibumi]

There is one thing better than the “ridged skull” thingy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0otnIuQiGG0&NR=1

[shibumi]

"Studies of elite handball and baseball players suggest that frequent overhand throwing from an early age permanently rotates the shoulder-end of the humerus toward an athlete's back, compared to people who haven't spent much time hurling."

I guess I just don't understand. I've never played handball or basketball, but in my 20's and 30's I did a lot of hurling, mostly on Saturday nights.

[bert]

This is her.

There was no mention of why girls can't throw right

[DBCJR]

Saturday night hurling? Sounds like a primitive ritual of self-destruction often followed by a morning of remorseful reflection and vows for the future.

I’ve had rotator cuff repairs on both shoulders, that means I’m an ambidextrious Neandrathal, Klingon variety (ridge-headed).

[Salamander]

I can throw a side-arm fastball that would scare the snot outta you.

[GoLightly]

My research into one of my “Norwegian” lines has a lot of Germans, Danes, Dutch, Flemish (Belgian?) & Swedes. The Danish crown ruled Norway for a couple of centuries, so many in the land owning class, the merchants, as well as many of the priests & leaders of the military in Norway were imports from the mainland. On the mainland, borders moved, even when some families didn't. Is someone from Jylland Danish or German?

[SunkenCiv]

Trinkaus’ comments are the most important IMHO. :’)

This hypothesis relies on a computer simulation / reconstruction of Neandertals, claims Neandertals all died by a thrown spear (and there are lots of N remains) despite lack of evidence, also postulates that spear chuckin’ was practiced twenty thousand years earlier than first attested (despite no evidence thereto), and ignoring the evidence that Neandertal is ancestral to Europeans. :’)

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2131718/posts

[babubabu]

I still think humans have some neanderthal ancestry... its just that anthropology and genetics are incredibly PC sciences. You find something controversial and your funding disappears.

[muawiyah]

Chimps toss sticks ~ spear chucking is truly ancient.