Cavemen Roasted Birds, Too [Homo heidelbergensis]

Discovery News ^ | Wednesday, November 25, 2009 | Jennifer Viegas

[SunkenCiv]

Early modern humans and their predecessors in Europe were mostly big game hunters, but a pile of well-nibbled bird bones suggests that at least some prehistoric European cavemen enjoyed small prey too, according to a new study. The 202 bones, belonging to the Aythya genus of diving ducks, were found at Bolomor Cave near the town of Tavernes in Valencia, Spain. The ducks date to around 150,000 years ago, and were not eaten daintily. "The birds were de-fleshed using both stone tools and teeth," co-author Ruth Blasco told Discovery News, noting that some of the ducks may have even been consumed raw... Blasco, a researcher at the Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution in Tarragona, Spain, and colleague Josep Fernandez Peris analyzed the duck bones under high magnification. They determined three characteristics allow the bird remains to be considered duck dinner leftovers... Although both Neanderthal and modern human remains have been found at the Bolomor Cave complex, the geological level of the roasted duck finds suggests that Homo heidelbergensis is the human species that ate the duck meals.

[SunkenCiv]

Of course, for generations his ancestors tried to kill two stones with one bird.

[TigersEye]

What! I’m not the sophisticated type what am I gonna do go hungry!?! lol

[SunkenCiv]

Pass that last drumstick please.

[SunkenCiv]

It was still the nest big thing on the long climb up.

[SunkenCiv]

It makes sense... cave man comes back near dark, soaking wet, carrying a bunch of ducks... and had your idea only because his cousin Og pushed him into the pond as a joke.

[SIDENET]

next I'll study how this all relates to the Giants taking a beating

LOL.

[paulycy]

That's not what I learned when I was a kid.

[TigersEye]

You’ll notice that cousin Og did not come back. Thankfully cousin Og’s wife, Ogetta, was a master at creating and controlling fire. Fossil evidence also indicates Ogetta could suck the marrow out of a mastodon thigh bone. Which of course has nothing at all to do with a duck dinner, a warm fire and wet furs drying on hot rocks. But science goes where the clues lead it. ;^)

[TheOldLady]

OMGosh, I’m a Neandertal. Anesthetic to that nerve only blocks the pain to the front teeth in my lower jaw.

I found out when I had a root canal in a lower back tooth. The dentist was not aware why the shots she kept giving me were not effective, and she thought I had “hysterical pain,” which I have never had in my life. So after having that procedure with virtually no anesthetic, I found another dentist who was aware of the anomaly. I stuck with him, duh.

[SunkenCiv]

WILLLLL! MAAAAAAAAAA!

[SunkenCiv]

heh...

[TigersEye]

I can’t connect all the dots in my theory yet. But if they find a corkscrew carved from a deer’s antler we’ll have the missing link!

[SunkenCiv]

:’)

[SunkenCiv]

Maybe some really old empty bottles of Chateau d’Lascaux...

[TigersEye]

;^)

[rdl6989]

So easy a caveman can do it.

[calex59]

I am sure they ate whatever the he** they could catch. Why do these idiots act surprised that cavemen would eat birds? I bet they ate what ever was available when they couldn’t find big game to kill, which probably happened more often than one might think.

[SunkenCiv]

Yeah, really. Are you gonna finish that, that, uh, what is that anyway?

[SunkenCiv]

I wonder when deep fat was invented?

[colorado tanker]

It's nice to know that even in those days Tiny Og could have his Christmas goose.