Neanderthals hunted enormous elephants that fed 100 people for a month

The extinct straight-tusked elephant was even bigger than trendy African elephants, making it unclear if Neanderthal hunters may take one down, however a newly analysed trove of bones suggests it was potential

By Clare Wilson

Neanderthals frequently hunted and butchered elephants in Europe hundreds of years in the past, in line with an evaluation of marks made by stone instruments on a trove of bones.

The discover suggests the traditional people both lived in bigger teams than beforehand suspected or that that they had methods of processing the flesh so it didn’t spoil, says Wil Roebroeks at Leiden University within the Netherlands, given the quantity of meat concerned. “These elephants are really big calorie bombs.”

There has lengthy been debate over whether or not Neanderthals, distant cousins of contemporary people, may have hunted the straight-tusked elephants (Palaeoloxodon antiquus). These extinct giants stood 4 metres tall, making them bigger than trendy African elephants and woolly mammoths.

To discover out extra, Roebroeks’s staff took a better have a look at elephant bones discovered alongside different animal stays and stone instruments in a quarry close to Halle, Germany, which was dug out from the Eighties. The bones have been dated to about 125,000 years in the past, when Neanderthals have been the one people identified to be within the space.

The stays have been from greater than 70 elephants, with just a few discovered as practically full skeletons. The marks left on the bones counsel the animals have been totally butchered to acquire each final scrap of meat and fats – together with, as an illustration their brains and the entire cumbersome fats pads of their toes.

There have been additionally few gnaw marks left by scavenging carnivores, suggesting little meals was left on the carcass. “There’s maybe a bit of nibbling on isolated vertebra, but most of these remains were so clean they weren’t attractive for carnivores,” says staff member Lutz Kindler on the Museum for Human Behavioural Evolution in Neuwied, Germany.

The staff has calculated that each one the flesh from one of many elephants would have fed about 100 adults for a month. Some researchers have beforehand instructed that Neanderthals lived in pretty small teams of as much as about 25 folks, based mostly on elements similar to the scale of their caves or evaluation of their footprints. “There’s a perception they lived in small groups, but when you look for the evidence, there’s nothing,” says Clive Finlayson on the Gibraltar National Museum, who wasn’t concerned within the new research.

If a smaller group of, say, 25 folks had killed an elephant, they might have needed to spend about three to 5 days working to strip the carcass of flesh and processing it in order that it wouldn’t spoil, as an illustration by drying or smoking it, says Roebroeks. The marks on the bones imply the meat wasn’t merely left to rot as soon as the Neanderthals had eaten their fill.

The staff discovered a better proportion of male and older elephants among the many stays, suggesting that the Neanderthals have been particularly concentrating on these animals, reasonably than scavenging from ones that had died of pure causes.

This makes some sense, as in trendy elephants older males are likely to dwell alone. Targeting loners would making searching simpler, says Roebroeks, as they could possibly be pushed into traps or muddy shores. “Large mammals are [easier] to kill as long as you are able to limit their mobility, and then they are finished off with spears,” he says.

Previous work has proven that Neanderthals could have cleared forests within the area the place the bones have been discovered, which additionally helps the thought they lived in bigger teams.

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