Discoveries

February 14, 2023

Down to the Bones

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A new study on ancient elephant remains is providing more evidence of Neanderthals’ sophisticated hunting and survival skills.

Scientists found that these extinct human relatives hunted gigantic straight-tusked elephants for their meat in order to feed hundreds of people, Smithsonian Magazine reported.

For their paper, a research team studied the 125,000-year-old remains of straight-tusked elephants previously collected in central Germany between 1985 and 1996.

The elephant species lived around Eurasia between 800,000 and 100,000 years ago and were considered the largest terrestrial mammals of that period. They were more than 13 feet tall and could weigh up to 13 tons – equivalent to about eight mid-sized cars.

Examining their remains, researchers came across a number of repetitive cut marks on the bones’ surface, suggesting that the Neanderthals carefully butchered the enormous mammals for their fat, meat, and their brains.

This process could have taken days – if a single person did it – but would have yielded enough meat to feed 25 individuals for three months, or 350 for a week.

The ancient hominins, meanwhile, scraped every bit of edible surface.

But aside from their appetite and butchering process, the findings suggest that our human relatives knew how to store and preserve meat. It also shows that they were very capable hunters and would target male elephants because they were usually solitary.

“Neanderthals knew what they were doing,” archaeologist Britt Starkovich, who was not involved in the study, wrote in an accompanying article for the paper.

This story originally appeared in the February 14, 2023 newsletter, The Puppetmasters.