In a new study that could provide humans with a glimpse of their future, a researcher from the University of Colorado-Denver has unearthed evidence that climate change may have played a key role in the demise of European Neanderthals some 40,000 years ago.
Writing in a recent edition of the Journal of Human Evolution, zooarchaeologist and assistant anthropology professor Jamie Hodgkins and her colleagues analyzed the remains of prey animals and found that Neanderthals were forced to go to great lengths to obtain enough sustenance from the meat and bones of these creatures during prolonged periods of extreme cold.
“Our research uncovers a pattern showing that cold, harsh environments were stressful for Neanderthals,” Hodgkins explained Wednesday in a statement. “As the climate got colder, Neanderthals had to put more into extracting nutrients from bones. This is especially apparent in evidence that reveals Neanderthals attempted to break open even low marrow yield bones, like the small bones of the feet.”
Limited food availability may have called for desperate measures
By examining bones found in caves once inhabited by Neanderthals in southwestern France, the researchers found that the hominins were more likely to pick the bones clean during these glacial periods. Specifically, they found an increase in the frequency of percussion marks, signaling the need to consume all of the marrow due to limited food availability.
The findings provide additional evidence in support of the growing hypothesis that one of the factors involved in the downfall of the Neanderthals was climate change – that these pre-human hominins experienced multiple population crashes linked to glacial cycles in the late Pleistocene epoch approximately 40,000 years ago.
“The exploitation of low marrow yield elements such as phalanges does not show a consistent pattern relating to climate,” the authors wrote. While they noted that this behavior may also have been “a general [Neanderthal] behavioral characteristic,” they believe that the findings appear to indicate that these early hominins were “processing faunal remains more heavily during glacial periods, suggesting a response to increased nutritional stress during colder time periods.”
“Our results illustrate that climate change has real effects,” Hodgkins added. “Studying Neanderthal behavior is an opportunity to understand how a rapidly changing climate affected our closest human relatives in the past. If Neanderthal populations were already on the edge of survival at the end of the Ice Age, the increased competition that occurred when modern humans appeared on the scene may have pushed them over the edge.”
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