Neanderthals hunted enormous elephants that fed 100 people for a month

The extinct straight-tusked elephant is even larger than modern African elephants, and it’s unclear whether Neanderthal hunters could have taken it down, but the newly analyzed pile of bones could. suggests that it was

To Claire Wilson

Neanderthals regularly hunted and slaughtered elephants in Europe thousands of years ago, according to an analysis of stone-tooled imprints on piles of bones.

Wil Roebroeks of the University of Leiden in the Netherlands, given the amount of meat, the discovery suggests that ancient humans lived in larger groups than previously thought, or had a way of processing meat to keep it from spoiling. It suggests that “These elephants are really big calorie bombs.”

It has long been debated whether Neanderthals, distant relatives of modern humans, may have hunted straight-tusked elephants (paleo loxodon ancient). These extinct giants were 4 meters tall, larger than today’s African elephants and woolly mammoths.

Roebroeks’ team examined elephant bones found alongside other animal fossils and stone tools in a quarry near Halle, Germany, that had been unearthed since the 1980s. The bones are about 125,000 years old and only Neanderthals are known to have lived in the area.

The remains belonged to more than 70 elephants, several of which were found with near-complete skeletons. Traces left on the bones indicate that the animals were thoroughly butchered to obtain every last piece of meat and fat.

Also, there were few bite marks from carnivorous animals, suggesting that there was little food left on the carcass. Lutz Kindler, a team member at the Museum of Human Behavioral Evolution in Neuwied, Germany, said, “Although the isolated vertebrae may have a few bite marks, most of these remains are very clean and carnivorous. It wasn’t appealing to me,” he said.

The team calculated that all the meat from one elephant could feed about 100 adults for a month. Some researchers have previously suggested that Neanderthals lived in fairly small groups of up to about 25 people, based on factors such as cave size and footprint analysis. There is a perception that he lived there, but we have searched for evidence and found nothing,” said Clive Finlayson of the National Museum of Gibraltar.

For example, if a small group of 25 people had killed an elephant, they would have had to spend about 3-5 days de-fleshing the carcass and keeping it from rotting. says Roebroeks. The bone marks mean that Neanderthals weren’t simply left to rot after eating their fill of meat.

The results suggest that Neanderthals specifically targeted these elephants, rather than scavenging them that had died of natural causes.

This makes some sense, as in modern elephants older males tend to live alone. Roebroeks says targeting lone wolves makes hunting easier, as they can be driven into traps and muddy shores. “Large mammals [easier] They’re speared to kill as much as they can limit their mobility,” he says.

Previous research has shown that Neanderthals may have cleared the forest in the area where the bones were found, supporting the idea that Neanderthals lived in larger groups.

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