Eerie ‘hybrid' skull belonged to ‘half human, half neanderthal girl' that died 140,000 years ago aged just 3
THAL STORY? Eerie 'hybrid' skull belonged to 'half human, half neanderthal girl' that died 140,000 years ago aged just 3
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A SKULL unearthed nearly a century ago is now believed to have belonged to a 'half human, half neanderthal girl', according to a new study.
The girl, who experts say was just three-years-old at the time, died roughly 140,000 years ago, towards the end of the Middle Pleistocene era.
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The girl's full skeleton is largely complete, with the left side better preserved
Credit: Tel Aviv University
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New analysis involving CT scanning suggests the remains belong to a hybrid species of ancient human, according the paper published in the journal L'Anthropologie
Credit: Tel Aviv University
Her remains were found when archaeologists unearthed several human skeletons, including seven adults and three children, while excavating Skuhl Cave just south of Haifa, Israel in 1929.
The girl's full skeleton is largely complete, with the left side better preserved.
Most of the remains were classified as early Homo sapiens; however, there remained some debate due to an unusual mix of skeletal features.
New analysis involving CT scanning suggests the remains belong to a hybrid species of ancient human, according the paper published in the journal L'Anthropologie.
Focusing on the neurocranium - the part of the skull that cups the brain, the mandible - which forms the lower part of the jaw and mouth, as well as teeth the team found characteristics of both Homo sapiens and Neanderthal.
Neanderthals and Homo sapiens had a period of about 5,400 years where both species roamed Earth at the same time.
The relationship between the two species is not wholly understood.
But they traded genes frequently during the period when their populations overlapped.
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The baby girl may have been a result of this interbreeding, according to the study.
Co-author Anne Dambricourt Malassé of the Institute of Human Paleontology in Paris said that she once thought such a hybridisation was not possible.
The results of their analysis, however, demonstrate that it is possible, although the child in question died very young.
'This study is maybe the first that has put the Skhul child's remains on a scientific basis,' John Hawks of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who wasn't involved with the study, told New Scientist.
'The old reconstruction and associated work, literally set in plaster, did not really enable anyone to compare this child with a broader array of recent children to understand its biology.'
Although, Hawks cautioned that a DNA sample would be needed to officially confirm the study's findings.
"Human populations are variable," he added.
"And there can be a lot of variability in their appearance and physical form even without mixing with ancient groups like Neanderthals."
It wouldn't be the first time a possible ancient human hybrid had been discovered.
In 2018, scientists analysed a bone fragment excavated from a cave site in Russia and concluded it belonged to a young girl of about 13 who was the offspring of a Neanderthal mother and a Denisovan father.
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The Independent
an hour ago
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New research reveals a secret ingredient in the Neanderthal diet
Scientists long thought that Neanderthals were avid meat eaters. Based on chemical analysis of Neanderthal remains, it seemed like they'd been feasting on as much meat as apex predators such as lions and hyenas. But as a group, hominins – that's Neanderthals, our species and other extinct close relatives – aren't specialized flesh eaters. Rather, they're more omnivorous, eating plenty of plant foods, too. It is possible for humans to subsist on a very carnivorous diet. In fact, many traditional northern hunter–gatherers such as the Inuit subsisted mostly on animal foods. But hominins simply cannot tolerate consuming the high levels of protein that large predators can. If humans eat as much protein as hypercarnivores do over long periods without consuming enough other nutrients, it can lead to protein poisoning – a debilitating, even lethal condition historically known as 'rabbit starvation.' So, what could explain the chemical signatures found in Neanderthal bones that seem to suggest they were healthily eating tons of meat? I am an anthropologist who uses elements such as nitrogen to study the diets of our very ancient ancestors. New research my colleagues and I conducted suggests a secret ingredient in the Neanderthal diet that might explain what was going on: maggots. Isotope ratios reveal what an animal ate The ratios of various elements in the bones of animals can provide insights into what they ate while alive. Isotopes are alternate forms of the same element that have slightly different masses. Nitrogen has two stable isotopes: nitrogen-14, the more abundant form, and nitrogen-15, the heavier, less common form. Scientists denote the ratio of nitrogen-15 to nitrogen-14 as δ¹⁵N and measure it in a unit called permil. As you go higher up the food chain, organisms have relatively more of the isotope nitrogen-15. Grass, for example, has a very low δ¹⁵N value. An herbivore accumulates the nitrogen-15 that it consumes by eating grass, so its own body has a slightly higher δ¹⁵N value. Meat-eating animals have the highest nitrogen ratio in a food web; the nitrogen-15 from their prey concentrates in their bodies. By analyzing stable nitrogen isotope ratios, we can reconstruct the diets of Neanderthals and early Homo sapiens during the late Pleistocene, which ran from 11,700 to 129,000 years ago. Fossils from various sites tell the same story – these hominins have high δ¹⁵N values. High δ¹⁵N values would typically place them at the top of the food web, together with hypercarnivores such as cave lions and hyenas, whose diet is more than 70% meat. But maybe something else about their diet was inflating Neanderthals' δ¹⁵N values. Uncovering the Neanderthal menu We suspected that maggots could have been a different potential source of enriched nitrogen-15 in the Neanderthal diet. Maggots, which are fly larvae, can be a fat-rich source of food. They are unavoidable after you kill another animal, easily collectible in large numbers and nutritionally beneficial. To investigate this possibility, we used a dataset that was originally created for a very different purpose: a forensic anthropology project focused on how nitrogen might help estimate time since death. I had originally collected modern muscle tissue samples and associated maggots at the Forensic Anthropology Center at University of Tennessee, Knoxville, to understand how nitrogen values change during decomposition after death. While the data can assist modern forensic death investigations, in our current study we repurposed it to test a very different hypothesis. We found that stable nitrogen isotope values increase modestly as muscle tissue decomposes, ranging from -0.6 permil to 7.7 permil. This increase is more dramatic in maggots feeding on decomposing tissue: from 5.4 permil to 43.2 permil. To put the maggot values in perspective, scientists estimate δ¹⁵N values for Pleistocene herbivores to range between 0.9 permil to 11.2 permil. Maggots are measuring up to almost four times higher. Our research suggests that the high δ¹⁵N values observed in Late Pleistocene hominins may be inflated by year-round consumption of ¹⁵N-enriched maggots found in dried, frozen or cached animal foods. Cultural practices shape diet In 2017, my collaborator John Speth proposed that the high δ¹⁵N values in Neanderthals were due to the consumption of putrid or rotting meat, based on historical and cultural evidence of diets in northern Arctic foragers. Traditionally, Indigenous peoples almost universally viewed thoroughly putrefied, maggot-infested animal foods as highly desirable fare, not starvation rations. In fact, many such people routinely and often intentionally allowed animal foods to decompose to the point where they were crawling with maggots, in some cases even beginning to liquefy. This rotting food would inevitably emit a stench so overpowering that early European explorers, fur trappers and missionaries were sickened by it. Yet Indigenous peoples viewed such foods as good to eat, even a delicacy. When asked how they could tolerate the nauseating stench, they simply responded, 'We don't eat the smell.' Neanderthals' cultural practices, similar to those of Indigenous peoples, might be the answer to the mystery of their high δ¹⁵N values. Ancient hominins were butchering, storing, preserving, cooking and cultivating a variety of items. All these practices enriched their paleo menu with foods in forms that nonhominin carnivores do not consume. Research shows that δ¹⁵N values are higher for cooked foods, putrid muscle tissue from terrestrial and aquatic species, and, with our study, for fly larvae feeding on decaying tissue. 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an hour ago
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Horrifying ancient meal loved by Neanderthals is a dieter's dream – but would YOU eat sickening dish?
Similar to the historical diets of some indigenous communities, Neanderthals too may have dined on decaying meat FORK-ET THAT! Horrifying ancient meal loved by Neanderthals is a dieter's dream – but would YOU eat sickening dish? Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) NEANDERTHALS may have feasted on maggot-infested meat as a core part of their diet, according to a new study. But the pungent delicacy was more than simply "starvation rations", said Melanie Beasley, assistant professor of anthropology at Purdue University, Indiana. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 2 Research from Beasley and her team suggests that Neanderthals had a hidden delicacy: maggots Credit: Getty A number of Indigenous communities have viewed putrefied - or fermented - meat as highly desirable. It is easier to digest, meaning the body can better and more quickly absorb nutrients without cooking. Experts have long known that Neanderthals - our extinct human ancestor - were omnivores, eating meat and vegetables like most modern people. But chemical signatures found in Neanderthal remains suggest they ate as much meat as lions. Analysis of their bones found too much nitrogen than what a classic omnivore would have. But hominins simply cannot tolerate eating the high levels of protein that large predators can. When humans eat as much protein as Earth's apex predators – or hypercarnivores – over long periods of time, without consuming enough other nutrients they can develop protein poisoning. Also known as "rabbit starvation", protein poisoning can lead to malnutrition and death. Research from Beasley and her team suggests that Neanderthals had a hidden delicacy: maggots. Similar to the historical diets of some indigenous communities, Neanderthals too may have dined on decaying meat. Stunningly lifelike face of 75,000-year-old Neanderthal woman in her 40s recreated after 'best-preserved' skull found It is this that would have boosted their internal nitrogen levels to hypercarnivore-levels, according to the study. Maggots, which are fly larvae, can be a fat-rich source of food. They are unavoidable after you kill another animal, easily collectible in large numbers and nutritionally beneficial. Melanie Beasley, assistant professor of anthropology at Purdue University, Indiana "We suspected that maggots could have been a different potential source of enriched nitrogen-15 in the Neanderthal diet," Beasley explained in a recent article published in The Conversation. "Maggots, which are fly larvae, can be a fat-rich source of food. "They are unavoidable after you kill another animal, easily collectible in large numbers and nutritionally beneficial." Beasley and her colleagues used data from a forensic anthropology project focused on how nitrogen might help estimate time since death to investigate the possibility. "I had originally collected modern muscle tissue samples and associated maggots at the Forensic Anthropology Center at University of Tennessee, Knoxville, to understand how nitrogen values change during decomposition after death," she said. "While the data can assist modern forensic death investigations, in our current study we repurposed it to test a very different hypothesis. "We found that stable nitrogen isotope values increase modestly as muscle tissue decomposes, ranging from -0.6 permil to 7.7 permil." The researchers found that maggots found in dried, frozen or cached animal foods would have inflated the nitrogen levels in ancient humans during the Late Pleistocene era. Research shows that [nitrogen-15] values are higher for cooked foods, putrid muscle tissue from terrestrial and aquatic species, and, with our study, for fly larvae feeding on decaying tissue. "Neanderthals' cultural practices, similar to those of Indigenous peoples, might be the answer to the mystery of their high [nitrogen-15] values. "Ancient hominins were butchering, storing, preserving, cooking and cultivating a variety of items. "All these practices enriched their paleo menu with foods in forms that nonhominin carnivores do not consume. "Research shows that [nitrogen-15] values are higher for cooked foods, putrid muscle tissue from terrestrial and aquatic species, and, with our study, for fly larvae feeding on decaying tissue." Although maggots may not solely explain the lion-like nitrogen levels in Neanderthals, according to the researchers. It is still unclear how many maggots an ancient human would need to eat to account for so much nitrogen. More research is needed on changes in nitrogen-15 values of foods processed, stored and cooked following Indigenous traditional practices to "help us better understand the dietary practices of our ancient relatives," said Beasley.
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Horrifying ancient meal loved by Neanderthals is a dieter's dream – but would YOU eat sickening dish?
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