Close Encounters in a French Cave.

[Jacques Cinq-Mars]

All,

For your information:

Late Neandertal Femur from Les Rochers-de-Villeneuve, France.

by Cédric Beauval, Bruno Maureille, François Lacrampe-Cuyaubère, David Serre, David Peressinotto, Jean-Guillaume Bordes, David Cochard, Isabelle Couchoud, David Dubrasquet, Véronique Laroulandie, Arnaud Lenoble, Jean-Baptiste Mallye, Sylvain Pasty, Jérôme Primault, Nadin Rohland, Svante Pääbo & Erik Trinkaus

EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 2-May-2005

Contact: Neil Schoenherr
nschoenherr@wustl.edu
314-935-5235
Washington University in St. Louis

Neandertal femur suggests competition with hyenas and a shift in landscape use

Analysis of approximately 41,000-year-old human remains found in France suggests that Neandertals may have become regionally mobile earlier than scientists once thought.

Cédric Beauval and colleagues from Université Bordeaux 1 in France, Max Planck Institute in Germany, and Washington University in St. Louis, conclude that the human femur fragment found in 2002 in the cave of the Rochers-de-Villeneuve comes from a Neandertal, based on its shape and mitochondrial DNA. Its age places it at the end of the Middle Paleolithic archeological period, just before modern humans arrived in Europe.

The research will be published in the PNAS online early edition the week of May2-6.

"In Europe, with the transition from Neandertals to modern humans, anthropologists have long argued that major behavioral changes and major improvements in adaptation began to take shape with modern humans," said Erik Trinkaus, Ph.D., Mary Tileston Hemenway Professor of Anthropology at Washington University and co-author of the paper.

"One of the changes that has been documented with the transition from Neandertals to modern humans was that people became more mobile and their territories became much larger. They became less locally focused and more regionally focused," Trinkaus said.

It's been assumed that this happened in the Upper Paleolithic which is associated with some very late Neandertals and early modern humans. However, this is a femur bone from a Middle Paleolithic Neandertal. It shows in the shape of the femur that a shift to greater mobility had already begun prior to the transition to the Upper Paleolithic, prior to any appearance of modern humans in Europe.

In addition, the cave was a hyena den at about the same time that the humans lived in it, the authors say. Archeological evidence indicates that humans processed carcasses of the same animals as the hyenas, with some animal bones showing both cut marks from human tools and tooth marks from hyenas. Additionally, the human femur was gnawed by carnivores, probably hyenas. This shows that close competition for food and space persisted through the Middle Paleolithic among these Neandertals.

Other (media) releases, i.e., variations on this theme are now circulating, all derived, it seems from a Discovery News piece that can be found HERE. Note that these present a pretty good image of the Neanderthal femur mentioned above.

I did check the PNAS site for a look at the actual paper, but, as of this morning, they had yet to update their “online early edition” listings.

Jacques Cinq-Mars

[lagarvelho]

Jacques and all:

Just to spread the news around, I've posted the link in several places, including Palanthsci, where it might be of interest.  I also mentioned the name of palanth.com, for those who want more information.
Anne G

[Jacques Cinq-Mars]

Jacques and all:

Just to spread the news around, I've posted the link in several places, including Palanthsci, where it might be of interest.  I also mentioned the name of palanth.com, for those who want more information.
Anne G

Anne,

Thanks for the effort!

Jacques

[Jacques Cinq-Mars]

All,

Here is another take on the same topic; this time from the National Geographic Society.

Neandertals, Hyenas Fought for Caves, Food, Study Says

Hillary Mayell
for National Geographic News
May 3, 2005

Neandertals not only fought for their lives against hyenas and other large predators but also battled with them for caves and food.

That's the conclusion drawn by scientists who found a 41,000-year-old Neandertal leg bone in a European cave littered with bones. The bones had been gnawed on by large carnivores or showed the cut marks of stone tools—or both.

The debris provides evidence that Neandertals (also spelled Neanderthals) and large carnivores, mostly hyenas, both used the Les Rochers-de-Villeneuve cave in central western France for shelter.

"The Neandertals and large carnivores occupied the cave in rapid succession," said Erik Trinkaus, a paleoanthropologist at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. "We have the bones of herbivores like bison and deer being chewed or processed by both Neandertals and hyenas, and they're both only going to do that if the meat is reasonably fresh, and if there's still something on there to get off."

"We have this idea that once humans became reasonably successful as hunters that they walked with impunity on the landscape, and that's just not so," Trinkaus said. "I'm not saying they were having fights at the mouths of caves with the hyenas, but I'm sure there were plenty of times when the hyenas came and, not being stupid, the Neandertals said 'see ya later, guys.'"

The human femur found in the cave had been gnawed on, probably by hyenas, but there is no way of knowing whether the Neandertal was a victim of the hyenas, or a human body that the hyenas scavenged.

"Any time during the middle Paleolithic and even the upper Paleolithic (time periods), when humans aren't living in caves, there's some kind of cave predator living in there; either cave bear or cave hyena or something," said Fred Smith, a paleontologist at Loyola University Chicago. "I'm sure that Neanderthals and hyenas would have competed for good cave sites."

Around 40,000 to 35,000 years ago, Neandertals and modern humans were beginning to dominate the landscape.

Click HERE for the full NG article.

As for the actual, original article that was supposed to appear in the May 3 (Current) issue of PNAS, well, it is nowhere to be found. Curious.

Jacques Cinq-Mars

[lagarvelho]

Jacques and all:

I spread the NG article around too.  It was a lot better than Discover article, and the picture was a lot better, too.  FWIW.
Anne G

[Jacques Cinq-Mars]

All,

PNAS has now online the Beauval & al. article and the reference presented earlier should be updated with:

PNAS102(20): 7085–7090

Here is the short abstract:

Abstract:
In 2002, a Neandertal partial femoral diaphysis was discovered at Les Rochers-de-Villeneuve (Vienne, France). Radiocarbon dated to _40,700 14C years before present, this specimen is one of the most recent Middle Paleolithic Neandertals. The diaphysis derives from an archeological level indicating alternating human and carnivore (mostly hyena) occupation of the cave, reinforcing the close proximity and probable competition of Middle Paleolithic humans with large carnivores for resources and space. Morphological aspects of the diaphysis and ancient DNA extracted from it indicate that it is aligned with the Neandertals and is distinct from early modern humans. However, its midshaft cortical bone distribution places it between other Middle Paleolithic Neandertals and the Chaˆ telperronian Neandertal from La Roche-a` -Pierrot, supporting a pattern of changing mobility patterns among late Middle Paleolithic Neandertals on the eve of modern human dispersals into Europe.

Keyword: shyena; Middle Paleolithic; mitochondrial DNA; mobility

Click HERE for the full article.

Jacques Cinq-Mars