Based on fossil finds, archaeologists are now piecing together how ancient humans thrived in a land dominated by dangerous large animals.
A study published in the journal Science Advances has unveiled interesting insights into the hunting practices of Neanderthals, revealing that they successfully hunted down the prehistoric straight-tusked elephant, a creature significantly larger than the famed woolly mammoth.
A picture shows the rebuilt skull and a physical reconstruction of the face and head, of a 75,000-year-old Neanderthal woman, named Shanidar Z, after the cave in Iraqi Kurdistan where her skull was found in 2018, at the University of Cambridge, eastern England, on April 25, 2024.Photo by JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP via Getty Images
Neanderthals Hunted Down Massive Prehistoric Beasts
The straight-tusked elephant (Palaeoloxodon antiquus) roamed Europe and western Asia during the Pleistocene era, approximately 800,000 to 100,000 years ago.
These colossal creatures, with males weighing up to 13 metric tons, were the largest land mammals of their time, dwarfing modern elephants (weighing 6.8 metric tons on average).
Their remains are often found alongside stone tools, prompting scientists to question whether early humans scavenged or actively hunted these giants.
The most compelling evidence comes from the Neumark-Nord site in Germany, where researchers discovered over 70 straight-tusked elephant remains dating back around 125,000 years.
This site has yielded 3,122 bones, tusks, and teeth, making it the richest assemblage of its kind. The bones exhibit numerous cut marks, indicating that Neanderthals used stone tools to butcher the elephants extensively.
What Fossil Finds Say About Neanderthal Hunting Techniques
The researchers stressed the significance of these cut marks, explaining that they point to prehistoric elephants as part of the Neanderthal diet due to cut marks on bones. This suggests that Neanderthals did not merely scavenge these animals but actively hunted and processed them for food.
Much like present-day carnivores like wolves and lions, Neanderthal hunting strategies likely involved large groups and complex social coordination.
The study proposes that hunting these enormous animals required substantial effort and risk, indicating that Neanderthals lived in larger, more stable groups than previously thought.
The size of these elephants and the time needed to process their carcasses - several days for a team of Neanderthals - implies that they had methods for preserving meat, such as drying or freezing, or that multiple tribes collaborated to share the bounty.
Previous archaeological evidence has hinted at Neanderthal interactions with large animals. Sites like Taubach, Lehringen, and Gröbern in Germany have yielded elephant remains alongside stone tools.
However, direct evidence of hunting, such as cut marks on bones, has been rare. This new discovery at Neumark-Nord provides definitive proof that Neanderthals actively hunted these gigantic creatures.
The implications of this study extend beyond understanding Neanderthal diet and hunting practices. It challenges the notion of Neanderthals as highly mobile hunters, suggesting instead that they might have formed larger, more sedentary groups.
This stability would have facilitated cultural exchange and allowed for significant environmental impact, as communities gathered and processed vast amounts of resources.
This discovery also shifts perspectives on other archaeological sites where Neanderthal tools were found with the remains of mammoths and rhinoceroses.
