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Hunted by Neanderthals, giant elephants traveled hundreds of kilometers across ice-age Europe
Neanderthals repeatedly hunted elephants at Neumark-Nord, a resource-rich hotspot, showing advanced planning and cooperation, according to a study of elephant tooth isotopes and proteins.
- A new study in Science Advances analysed four straight-tusked elephant teeth, finding two males travelled up to 300 kilometres to Neumark-Nord excavation, northern Germany, about 125,000 years ago.
- Back in the 1980s, excavations about 35 kilometres east of Leipzig uncovered at least 172 large mammals and a concentration of elephant remains described as a prehistoric 'fat factory'.
- Using isotopes and palaeoproteomics, the team combined carbon, oxygen and strontium isotope analyses with protein analysis from four fossilized elephant teeth to determine diet, sex and migration, revealing strontium differences in two males from local bedrock.
- Given the density of remains, the study’s authors suggest Neanderthals engaged in organized hunting, implying cooperation and planning, Elena Armaroli said in a statement.
- The team is launching a genetic study, Lutz Kindler said, to understand the population dynamics of the Neumark elephants and with that Neanderthal hunting at Neumark, added Lutz Kindler. Sabine Gaudzinski‑Windheuser states, 'What we see at Neumark‑Nord is not a picture of mere survival, but of a population that understood its environment and interacted with it actively and in complex ways over a period of at least 2,500 years.
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The IndependentReposted by 
The Independent (US)
The Independent (US)Hunted by Neanderthals, giant elephants travelled hundreds of miles across Europe
Human ancestors hunted large prey in organised way using their knowledge of landscape
·London, United Kingdom
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Hunted by Neanderthals, giant elephants traveled hundreds of kilometers across ice-age Europe
Neumark-Nord in northeastern Germany was a lake landscape in the last interglacial period. It is rich in archaeological finds discovered during lignite mining. The area in Saxony-Anhalt is one of the most important European paleontological sites for the European straight-tusked elephant Palaeoloxodon antiquus. Fossil remains of more than 70 elephants have been found there—animals that were once hunted in this region by Neanderthals. Because of t…
·United Kingdom
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Leaning Left3Leaning Right1Center3Last UpdatedBias Distribution43% Left, 43% Center
Bias Distribution
- 43% of the sources lean Left, 43% of the sources are Center
43% Center
L 43%
C 43%
14%
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