Posted on 02/02/2006 11:47:20 AM PST by 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.
The Neandertal EnigmaFrayer's own reading of the record reveals a number of overlooked traits that clearly and specifically link the Neandertals to the Cro-Magnons. One such trait is the shape of the opening of the nerve canal in the lower jaw, a spot where dentists often give a pain-blocking injection. In many Neandertal, the upper portion of the opening is covered by a broad bony ridge, a curious feature also carried by a significant number of Cro-Magnons. But none of the alleged 'ancestors of us all' fossils from Africa have it, and it is extremely rare in modern people outside Europe." [pp 126-127]
by James Shreeve
New Study Reveals Neanderthals Were As Good At Hunting As Early Modern Humans
Science Daily | 1-19-2006 | University Of Chicago
Posted on 01/19/2006 11:28:01 AM PST by blam
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1561092/posts
Thoughtful Hunters (Neanderthals)
Leiden University | 1-2-2006
Posted on 01/02/2006 11:59:40 AM PST by blam
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1550709/posts
Neanderthal Man Floated Into Europe, Say Spanish Researchers
The Guardian (UK) | 1-16-2006 | Giles Tremlett
Posted on 01/16/2006 3:13:24 PM PST by blam
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1559199/posts
Redating The Latest Neanderthals In Europe
Washington University-St Louis | 1-5-2006 | Neil Schoenherr
Posted on 01/05/2006 3:34:12 PM PST by blam
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1552680/posts
New reconstruction of Krapina 5, a male Neandertal cranial vault from Krapina, Croatia
Wiley InterScience / American Journal of Physical Anthropology | Jan 4 2006 | Rachel Caspari, Jakov Radovi
Posted on 01/09/2006 9:20:13 AM PST by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1554679/posts
"We are Neanderthals, they became us."
The only problem with this is that they were contemporary with modern, homo sapiens sapiens (as opposed to homo sapiens neanderthalensis). The latest neanderthal fossil is something like 28 thousand years old, and sapiens sapiens goes back 100k or so. And I have to tell you, these people were as different as dogs and cats. There's no way in hell neanderthal just morphed into modern man - especially with modern man running around side-by-side.
"their voice box is quite high in the throat"
And they also had a flat palate, unlike our own rounded ones, which would have limited their range of words somewhat. Some folks say they talked like children, if they talked at all.
I think you are onto something. If all women looked like Cindy Sheehan, the choice between that and becoming gay would basically force me into celibacy and the species would die off in that generation.
The Neandertal EnigmaFrayer's own reading of the record reveals a number of overlooked traits that clearly and specifically link the Neandertals to the Cro-Magnons. One such trait is the shape of the opening of the nerve canal in the lower jaw, a spot where dentists often give a pain-blocking injection. In many Neandertal, the upper portion of the opening is covered by a broad bony ridge, a curious feature also carried by a significant number of Cro-Magnons. But none of the alleged 'ancestors of us all' fossils from Africa have it, and it is extremely rare in modern people outside Europe." [pp 126-127]
by James Shreeve
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