Latest news with #Neanderthals'
Hindustan Times
4 days ago
- Science
- Hindustan Times
Did UV Rays Doom Neanderthals?
Our ancestral cousins went mysteriously extinct around 40,000 years ago, while humans did not. The demise of one and survival of the other continues to flummox paleoanthropologists—but some researchers now think sunscreen and tailored clothing might have played a role. Around the time Neanderthals bit the dust, a weakening of the Earth's magnetic field resulted in exposure to higher doses of harmful ultraviolet radiation. Clothing would have offered some protection. Both groups wore animal skins, but evidence suggests Neanderthals tended to wear loosefitting cloaks, while Homo sapiens sewed form-fitting garments. Humans also coated themselves with mineral pigments, which would have functioned as an ancient SPF. It is unlikely that these differences in behavior alone would have resulted in the Neanderthals' demise, but researchers think that their exposure to increased radiation would have had detrimental effects. The increased exposure occurred when Earth's north and south magnetic poles began to wander from their traditional positions. The rotation of the planet and its molten core help generate a protective magnetic field that keeps our planet's ozone layer robust and protects us from high-energy particles that constantly flow from the sun. The field is anchored at the poles, where magnetic forces are most concentrated. But small changes in the core can cause the poles to wander. During the twilight of the Neanderthals, such a wandering caused the magnetic field to drop to about 10% of its average strength. Scientists call this the Laschamps event. To test the effects of the Laschamps, Agnit Mukhopadhyay, a University of Michigan space scientist, and his group created 3-D models of what Earth's magnetic field would have looked like during the event. The results, published in the journal Science Advances, showed where the magnetic field was compromised, allowing radiation and particles to slip through. Researchers know the magnetic field went haywire way back then by examining minerals smaller than the width of a human hair found within ancient deep-sea sediments and volcanic rocks. These tiny grains, which contain iron, become magnetized, and their alignment offers clues about the state of Earth's magnetic field at the time. The researchers' analysis suggests Earth's northern and southern latitudes up to 40 degrees would have been disproportionately affected by the weakening. This area in the Northern Hemisphere—including what is today Spain—is where many Neanderthal and Homo sapiens populations lived. 'As an anthropologist, I was intrigued, because I think a lot about how climate and weather might have affected Homo sapiens and other species, but I never thought about space,' said Raven Garvey, a professor of anthropology at the University of Michigan and Mukhopadhyay's co-author. For about a millennium or two, during the Laschamps event, Earth would have experienced higher levels of invisible, cosmic radiation. But the impact of a thinner ozone layer wasn't just about increased radiation exposure. It also would have affected cloud cover, wind belts, rainfall and general weather patterns. 'It's not that the UV kills everybody,' said Alan Cooper, an evolutionary biologist at Charles Sturt University in Australia who wasn't involved in the recent work but has published research with similar conclusions. 'It's climate change. Everything goes completely wild at that point.' Not only did Neanderthals disappear from the fossil record around this time, Cooper added, but so did other species across the disproportionately affected areas. Mukhopadhyay's group suggested two theories of what helped Homo sapiens, who interbred with Neanderthals, to survive: the use of a primitive kind of sunscreen known as ocher—a naturally occurring pigment composed of iron oxide often used for cave art—to protect their bodies from the sun, and clothing that hugged the body and covered more skin. Right around the time of the Laschamps event, there was an uptick in cave art at sites archaeologists have linked to Homo sapiens, according to Cooper. Anthropologists hypothesize that Homo sapiens also used ocher on their skin based on the fact that populations living in Africa and Australia today apply the pigment as a skin protectant, said Andrew Zipkin, an archaeological scientist affiliated with Arizona State University who wasn't involved in the recent study. Ocher is a naturally occurring pigment often used in cave paintings in what is now Spain. Archaeological sites linked to Neanderthals and modern humans have both yielded stone tools called scrapers used for processing animal hides to make them supple and wearable, Garvey said. But researchers have found evidence of a broader clothing-making tool kit at Homo sapiens-related sites. 'We're also seeing things like needles and awls and the kinds of implements that would be very useful to poke holes in these hides and then stitch them together with sinew in the mass production of tailored clothing,' she added. Anthropologists are careful to note that the coincident timing of the Neanderthal extinction and the Laschamps event could have been mere chance. Differences in population sizes and other things could also have made the species's survival less likely, according to Tony Capra, a University of California, San Francisco evolutionary geneticist who wasn't involved in the work. The goal of the recent work, according to the study authors, was to focus on one aspect of a multifaceted mystery. 'Whoever had the tailored clothing probably did have this advantage,' Garvey said. 'But was it exclusive to one group and was it enough to lead to the extinction of one and the proliferation of the other? These are million-dollar questions.' Write to Aylin Woodward at Did UV Rays Doom Neanderthals?
Mint
5 days ago
- Science
- Mint
Did UV rays doom Neanderthals?
What happened to the Neanderthals? Our ancestral cousins went mysteriously extinct around 40,000 years ago, while humans did not. The demise of one and survival of the other continues to flummox paleoanthropologists—but some researchers now think sunscreen and tailored clothing might have played a role. Around the time Neanderthals bit the dust, a weakening of the Earth's magnetic field resulted in exposure to higher doses of harmful ultraviolet radiation. Clothing would have offered some protection. Both groups wore animal skins, but evidence suggests Neanderthals tended to wear loosefitting cloaks, while Homo sapiens sewed form-fitting garments. Humans also coated themselves with mineral pigments, which would have functioned as an ancient SPF. It is unlikely that these differences in behavior alone would have resulted in the Neanderthals' demise, but researchers think that their exposure to increased radiation would have had detrimental effects. The increased exposure occurred when Earth's north and south magnetic poles began to wander from their traditional positions. The rotation of the planet and its molten core help generate a protective magnetic field that keeps our planet's ozone layer robust and protects us from high-energy particles that constantly flow from the sun. The field is anchored at the poles, where magnetic forces are most concentrated. But small changes in the core can cause the poles to wander. During the twilight of the Neanderthals, such a wandering caused the magnetic field to drop to about 10% of its average strength. Scientists call this the Laschamps event. To test the effects of the Laschamps, Agnit Mukhopadhyay, a University of Michigan space scientist, and his group created 3-D models of what Earth's magnetic field would have looked like during the event. The results, published in the journal Science Advances, showed where the magnetic field was compromised, allowing radiation and particles to slip through. Researchers know the magnetic field went haywire way back then by examining minerals smaller than the width of a human hair found within ancient deep-sea sediments and volcanic rocks. These tiny grains, which contain iron, become magnetized, and their alignment offers clues about the state of Earth's magnetic field at the time. The researchers' analysis suggests Earth's northern and southern latitudes up to 40 degrees would have been disproportionately affected by the weakening. This area in the Northern Hemisphere—including what is today Spain—is where many Neanderthal and Homo sapiens populations lived. 'As an anthropologist, I was intrigued, because I think a lot about how climate and weather might have affected Homo sapiens and other species, but I never thought about space," said Raven Garvey, a professor of anthropology at the University of Michigan and Mukhopadhyay's co-author. For about a millennium or two, during the Laschamps event, Earth would have experienced higher levels of invisible, cosmic radiation. But the impact of a thinner ozone layer wasn't just about increased radiation exposure. It also would have affected cloud cover, wind belts, rainfall and general weather patterns. 'It's not that the UV kills everybody," said Alan Cooper, an evolutionary biologist at Charles Sturt University in Australia who wasn't involved in the recent work but has published research with similar conclusions. 'It's climate change. Everything goes completely wild at that point." Not only did Neanderthals disappear from the fossil record around this time, Cooper added, but so did other species across the disproportionately affected areas. Mukhopadhyay's group suggested two theories of what helped Homo sapiens, who interbred with Neanderthals, to survive: the use of a primitive kind of sunscreen known as ocher—a naturally occurring pigment composed of iron oxide often used for cave art—to protect their bodies from the sun, and clothing that hugged the body and covered more skin. Right around the time of the Laschamps event, there was an uptick in cave art at sites archaeologists have linked to Homo sapiens, according to Cooper. Anthropologists hypothesize that Homo sapiens also used ocher on their skin based on the fact that populations living in Africa and Australia today apply the pigment as a skin protectant, said Andrew Zipkin, an archaeological scientist affiliated with Arizona State University who wasn't involved in the recent study. Archaeological sites linked to Neanderthals and modern humans have both yielded stone tools called scrapers used for processing animal hides to make them supple and wearable, Garvey said. But researchers have found evidence of a broader clothing-making tool kit at Homo sapiens-related sites. 'We're also seeing things like needles and awls and the kinds of implements that would be very useful to poke holes in these hides and then stitch them together with sinew in the mass production of tailored clothing," she added. Anthropologists are careful to note that the coincident timing of the Neanderthal extinction and the Laschamps event could have been mere chance. Differences in population sizes and other things could also have made the species's survival less likely, according to Tony Capra, a University of California, San Francisco evolutionary geneticist who wasn't involved in the work. The goal of the recent work, according to the study authors, was to focus on one aspect of a multifaceted mystery. 'Whoever had the tailored clothing probably did have this advantage," Garvey said. 'But was it exclusive to one group and was it enough to lead to the extinction of one and the proliferation of the other? These are million-dollar questions." Write to Aylin Woodward at
RTÉ News
28-07-2025
- Health
- RTÉ News
Neanderthals likely ate fermented meat with side of maggots
Scientists long thought that Neanderthals were avid meat eaters. Based on chemical analysis of Neanderthal remains, it seemed like they had 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 specialised flesh eaters. Rather, they are 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 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. A herbivore accumulates the nitrogen-15 that it consumes 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 analysing 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 It is 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, a dataset that was originally created for a very different purpose was used: 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 peoples 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. The high δ¹⁵N values of maggots associated with putrid animal foods help explain how Neanderthals could have included plenty of other nutritious foods beyond only meat while still registering δ¹⁵N values we're used to seeing in hypercarnivores. We suspect the high δ¹⁵N values seen in Neanderthals reflect routine consumption of fatty animal tissues and fermented stomach contents, much of it in a semi-putrid or putrid state, together with the inevitable bonus of both living and dead ¹⁵N-enriched maggots. What still isn't known Fly larvae are a fat-rich, nutrient-dense, ubiquitous and easily procured insect resource, and both Neanderthals and early Homo sapiens, much like recent foragers, would have benefited from taking full advantage of them. But we cannot say that maggots alone explain why Neanderthals have such high δ¹⁵N values in their remains. Several questions about this ancient diet remain unanswered. How many maggots would someone need to consume to account for an increase in δ¹⁵N values above the expected values due to meat eating alone? How do the nutritional benefits of consuming maggots change the longer a food item is stored? More experimental studies on changes in δ¹⁵N values of foods processed, stored and cooked following Indigenous traditional practices can help us better understand the dietary practices of our ancient relatives.
News18
26-07-2025
- Health
- News18
Neanderthals likely ate fermented meat with a side of maggots
Agency: PTI Last Updated: Indiana, Jul 26 (The Conversation) 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 specialised 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 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 analysing 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 per cent 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 peoples 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. The high δ¹⁵N values of maggots associated with putrid animal foods help explain how Neanderthals could have included plenty of other nutritious foods beyond only meat while still registering δ¹⁵N values we're used to seeing in hypercarnivores. We suspect the high δ¹⁵N values seen in Neanderthals reflect routine consumption of fatty animal tissues and fermented stomach contents, much of it in a semi-putrid or putrid state, together with the inevitable bonus of both living and dead ¹⁵N-enriched maggots. What still isn't known Fly larvae are a fat-rich, nutrient-dense, ubiquitous and easily procured insect resource, and both Neanderthals and early Homo sapiens, much like recent foragers, would have benefited from taking full advantage of them. But we cannot say that maggots alone explain why Neanderthals have such high δ¹⁵N values in their remains. Several questions about this ancient diet remain unanswered. How many maggots would someone need to consume to account for an increase in δ¹⁵N values above the expected values due to meat eating alone? How do the nutritional benefits of consuming maggots change the longer a food item is stored? More experimental studies on changes in δ¹⁵N values of foods processed, stored and cooked following Indigenous traditional practices can help us better understand the dietary practices of our ancient relatives. (The Conversation) GRS GRS (This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed - PTI) view comments First Published: July 26, 2025, 11:15 IST News agency-feeds Neanderthals likely ate fermented meat with a side of maggots Disclaimer: Comments reflect users' views, not News18's. Please keep discussions respectful and constructive. Abusive, defamatory, or illegal comments will be removed. News18 may disable any comment at its discretion. By posting, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Yahoo
08-07-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Archaeologists Were Digging Into a Hill—and Stumbled Upon a 125,000-Year-Old Factory
Here's what you'll learn when you read this story: A new study shows evidence of Neanderthal 'fat factories' dating back as far as 125,000 years ago. The study found inhabitants of the settlement strategically selected the lakeside location for the factory and harvested bone marrow by breaking open the bones as well as through a process of crushing and heating. The fat factory suggests Neanderthals' grasp of their survivalist diets, and that they were able to understand their environment and plan ahead for hunting and resource-gathering. Though the assembly line is largely credited to Henry Ford in 1913, humans understood the mass production practice long beforehand. A new study published in the journal Science Advances shows that the Neanderthals—our distant cousins—operated 'fat factories' to extract bone marrow for their diets as far back as 125,000 years ago. The recent research from Leiden University adds to decades of previous research at the Neumark-Nord archaeological site near Leipzig, Germany. Around 125,000 years ago, Earth experienced an interglacial period with weather much like our climate today. Previous research at Neumark-Nord showed that Neanderthals hunted and butchered straight-tusked elephants in the region. According to a press release from Leiden University, there is also evidence of plant use in the area, though it's rarely preserved. Additionally, previous studies found proof that inhabitants used fire to manage vegetation. Needless to say, Neanderthals have long been underestimated, and the new study does nothing to dissuade that notion. Archeologists on the recent excavation found that Neanderthals intentionally selected the lakeside location to process the bones of at least 172 mammals including deer, horses, and aurochs (a now-extinct species of bovine). According to the study, inhabitants at the site not only broke open large mammal bones to extract the marrow, but they also ground the bones into thousands of fragments and heated them in water to extract calorie-rich bone grease. These findings place estimates of advanced resource collection thousands of years earlier than previously thought. 'This was intensive, organised, and strategic,' the study's first author Lutz Kindler said in the press release. 'Neanderthals were clearly managing resources with precision—planning hunts, transporting carcasses, and rendering fat in a task-specific area. They understood both the nutritional value of fat and how to access it efficiently—most likely involving caching carcass parts at places in the landscape for later transport to and use at the grease rendering site.' Experts believe Neanderthals understood that there was a certain 'fat quota' they had to meet in order to make the (literally) bone-crushing process worthwhile. The authors of the paper emphasized the transparent amount of herbivores that Neanderthals at Neumark-Nord must have been hunting, explaining that our 'cousins' were likely able to plan ahead and use their environment effectively. This extensive research was possible because it wasn't just one site that was preserved—it was an entire landscape, according to the authors of the study. 'The enormous extent and exceptional preservation of the Neumark-Nord site complex offers us a unique opportunity to investigate how Neanderthals influenced their environment—both flora and fauna,' Fulco Scherjon, researcher on the project, said in the release. 'This is extremely rare for such an ancient site—and opens exciting perspectives for future research.' You Might Also Like The Do's and Don'ts of Using Painter's Tape The Best Portable BBQ Grills for Cooking Anywhere Can a Smart Watch Prolong Your Life?
