Posted on 12/04/2006 5:01:47 PM PST by blam
Did starving Neanderthals eat each other?
22:00 04 December 2006
NewScientist.com news service
Rowan Hooper
Neanderthals lived a desperately tough life, sometimes so close to starvation that when one of them died their compatriots would fall upon the body and devour it, according to new research.
Scorned as clumsy, idiotic brutes with little in the way of developed culture, our pitiless modern view of Neanderthals may be tempered by new findings that provide insight into the terrible life our evolutionary cousins faced.
Antonio Rosas, of the National Museum for Natural Sciences in Madrid, Spain, and colleagues studied 43,000-year-old Neanderthal remains found in the El Sidrón cave in the north of the Iberian peninsula.
The cave is extraordinarily rich in Neanderthal remains. About 1300 Neanderthal fossils have been excavated since its accidental discovery in 1994. And the picture emerging from analysis of the remains is now enriching our understanding of the much-maligned species.
Spiritual life
Rosas and colleagues examined the teeth of eight individuals found in the cave and found hypoplasia lines – evidence that during growth, the individuals had probably gone through a period of starvation. Moreover, cuts discovered on some of the bones suggest that cannibalism was practiced by the group.
(Excerpt) Read more at newscientist.com ...
No, it's the guy on the right, since you never see the guy on the left anymore.
Whenever I go on a waiting list at a restaurant, I always give them the name "Donner."
Starving Neanderthals = Good Band Name.
To the best of my knowledge they are still serving that at 99!
Hey Mr. Brightside.....you ain't looking on the brightside here. I was attempting some lame humor....
Do politicians eat each other? Yes.
Are politicians Neanderthals? Yes, again.
FRegards,
43,000 years? But the earth is only 5,000 years old!
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