A Day in the Life of a Neanderthal

May 21, 2009

Please be sure to check out this week's Discovery News story concerning evidence that a modern human may have eaten a Neanderthal child.

Credit: Knut Finstermeier

I recently spoke with Gerrit Dusseldorp, an expert on Neanderthals and early humans who is at the University of the Witwatersrand's Institute for Human Evolution. Here's what he had to say about these puzzling hominids who may have been our relatives, our dinner or both.

<<JV: Your research suggests that Neanderthals and hyenas occupied the same top carnivore place on the early European food chain. But didn't Neanderthals edge them out by being superior hunters?

GD: First, hyenas, like Neanderthals were capturing very dangerous animals. However, it appears (from the few sites that I have looked at) that, if circumstances allow, hyenas prefer to focus on smaller game. In this case: At a French hyena den (called Lunel Viel) located in a forested environment, deer were the most common prey, followed at some distance by horse and aurochs. In a den (Camiac also in France) located in a Mammoth Steppe environment, bovids and horse are common, followed by woolly rhinoceros while cervids are rare. From extant spotted hyenas (of which we know that they are genetically indistinguishable from European cave hyenas) we know that they prefer to forage alone. When foraging in groups they are able to take much larger prey. However, since there is a strong dominance hierarchy, especially low-ranking animals may take part in hunting a large animal and not profit from the kill at all. It appears that in forested environments, where prey is dispersed, foraging alone is successful. On the mammoth steppe, prey is concentrated in large herds. Therefore foraging in groups becomes necessary and this leads to larger prey being represented at sites.

JV: So what then was the hunting strategy of Neanderthals?

GD: Neanderthals on the other hand appear to have focused in warm environments, even if many other alternatives were available. I looked at a site in forested environment in Germany (called Taubach) where rhinoceros and brown bear were the most common prey, followed by bison. Several species of deer were also available, as well as horses, donkeys and wild boar, but they were not exploited. (We know this because butchery marks were present on hundreds of bear and rhino bones and absent on bones of cervids, boars, horses, donkeys and so on).

 

At the colder French site of Biache-Saint-Vaast, rhinoceros and brown bears were also hunted, but here the smaller aurochs were the most common prey. As the environment becomes colder, herd animals become more common prey, while bears are not hunted anymore. (Again butchery marks indicate which species were exploited. Although here too, boar and different species of deer were present they do not seem to have been selected by Neanderthals. Horses do seem to have been selected in the latest coldest phase of occupation).

 

Even more striking is the fact that all of the bison at Taubach of which the sex could be ascertained, were bulls. At Biache-Saint-Vaast, about 60 percent were male and 40 percent were female.

JV: What's the significance of that finding?

 

GD: I interpreted this as signaling that Neanderthals prefer large prey. However, in warm, forested environments, available biomass was scarce, since most of it was locked up in trees as wood and leaves, which hominins cannot digest. Therefore, they were present in lower population densities. In contrast to hyenas, Neanderthals as primates are not carnivores equipped with natural weapons such as powerful jaws and claws. Their most important weapon likely was their big brain. Locations of sites suggest that they usually hunted using ambush strategies. When living in smaller groups in forests, they probably could not easily ambush herds of large animals like female bison, or horses. They therefore concentrated on solitary animals: rhinoceros, brown bear and bulls of bison, since they live solitary most of the year.

 

As the environment becomes more open, biomass is available in larger quantities. Neanderthals could live in larger groups. This led to increased exploitation of herd-living animals such as female bison. The very dangerous brown bear was dropped from the diet, because killing this solitary animal may have been easier for small groups it was probably more dangerous than ambushing a herd of bison or horses.

JV: Do you then think that Neanderthals fared better when they were in more open and less forested areas? That seems hard to fathom.

 

GD: The conclusion that forested environments may have been less suited to Neanderthals may seem counterintuitive, but is supported by data on animal species in modern European forests. At Bialowice National Park in Poland for example, there is about 2 tonnes of herbivore biomass per square kilometer. For the mammoth steppes, divergent estimates have been proposed, but 14 tonnes per square kilometer appears reasonable.

JV: Is it possible that competing Neanderthals and hyenas ate each other?

 

GD: Neanderthals may have consumed hyenas, but there is little evidence for this (there are no sites with large quantities of hyena bones with butchering marks). Some Neanderthal bones have been found in hyena dens and some of these bones show clear traces of gnawing by hyenas. (A nice illustration is found in the paper I attached). Therefore they may have been eaten at least occasionally by hyenas. Their remains in these contexts are always few in number though.

JV: I've also read that Neanderthals and hyenas shared cave dwellings. Do you think that happened?

GD: Some caves provide clear evidence that they were used by both species. However, often they were used in different points in time. This is signaled by the use of caves by hyenas to raise their young. Young spotted hyenas are fully dependent on their parents for the first 15 months of their lives and are hidden at secure places. We know from studies on extant hyenas that once a site is disturbed, the cubs will be moved and the site will be avoided for some time. Battles for caves seem therefore unlikely. Especially since hyenas often use burrows that they dug themselves. They are therefore not dependent on caves as living spaces.

JV: Why do you think Neanderthals went extinct?

GD: On the question of Neanderthal extinction, it is still uncertain what caused it. However, the focus of Neanderthals on the very largest animals, though brave may have brought some problems with it as well. Large animals are present in low population densities and have low rates of reproduction. In an unstable environment these species may not respond well to crises. Anatomically modern humans appear to have sometimes also exploited small animals like rabbits, hares, birds and fish. These species may be difficult to exploit efficiently, unless one invests in traps, nets or snares. However they are present in larger numbers and they reproduce rapidly. They may therefore bounce back from crises more quickly than larger species. Therefore anatomically modern humans may have had a more reliable palet exploited foods. After environmental crises modern humans may then have recovered more quickly than Neanderthals, and may have started usurping territories that before the environmental crisis were occupied by Neanderthals.

JV: What research are you conducting at present?

GD: I am now investigating how and when anatomically modern humans started exploiting this kind of resources in South Africa. Here a few sites have been found with very early indications for “modern behaviour” such as symbolism. I want to track the concomitant changes in foraging strategies and see how this affected indications for population density. I hope to be able to document if and when modern human foraging strategies enabled a growth in their populations.>>

Comments

[Leotaurus]

Seem utopian and absurd. Neanderthals may live in today’s society
According to the appearance and the reconstructed skull of such people is very rare, their intellect is several times lower.
http://www.tiputeorija.lt/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=68&Itemid=76
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2707258963809688424#docid=7113880940822502772