Warning: Undefined variable $yww in C:\Inetpub\vhosts\kidney.de\httpdocs\pget.php on line 538
Warning: Undefined variable $yww in C:\Inetpub\vhosts\kidney.de\httpdocs\pget.php on line 538
Warning: imagejpeg(C:\Inetpub\vhosts\kidney.de\httpdocs\phplern\26064624
.jpg): Failed to open stream: No such file or directory in C:\Inetpub\vhosts\kidney.de\httpdocs\pget.php on line 117 R+Soc+Open+Sci
2015 ; 2
(4
): 140022
Nephropedia Template TP
gab.com Text
Twit Text FOAVip
Twit Text #
English Wikipedia
Neanderthal bone flutes : simply products of Ice Age spotted hyena scavenging
activities on cave bear cubs in European cave bear dens
#MMPMID26064624
Diedrich CG
R Soc Open Sci
2015[Apr]; 2
(4
): 140022
PMID26064624
show ga
Punctured extinct cave bear femora were misidentified in southeastern Europe
(Hungary/Slovenia) as 'Palaeolithic bone flutes' and the 'oldest Neanderthal
instruments'. These are not instruments, nor human made, but products of the most
important cave bear scavengers of Europe, hyenas. Late Middle to Late Pleistocene
(Mousterian to Gravettian) Ice Age spotted hyenas of Europe occupied mainly cave
entrances as dens (communal/cub raising den types), but went deeper for
scavenging into cave bear dens, or used in a few cases branches/diagonal shafts
(i.e. prey storage den type). In most of those dens, about 20% of adult to 80% of
bear cub remains have large carnivore damage. Hyenas left bones in repeating
similar tooth mark and crush damage stages, demonstrating a butchering/bone
cracking strategy. The femora of subadult cave bears are intermediate in damage
patterns, compared to the adult ones, which were fully crushed to pieces. Hyenas
produced round-oval puncture marks in cub femora only by the bone-crushing
premolar teeth of both upper and lower jaw. The punctures/tooth impact marks are
often present on both sides of the shaft of cave bear cub femora and are simply a
result of non-breakage of the slightly calcified shaft compacta. All stages of
femur puncturing to crushing are demonstrated herein, especially on a large cave
bear population from a German cave bear den.