raw evidence has spill light on an 800,000 - year - old cannibalistic murder . In the spate of northern Spain , an ancient cave held the confused skeletal corpse of some extinct human ancestors with percipient marks of cannibalism – perhaps the result of an inauspicious run - in with a rival group .
In a new sketch , anthropologist looked at the individuals ’ teeth in an attempt to reveal their identity , revealing some surprisal : one individual once known as the Boy of Gran Dolina was , in fact , a young female person .
“ In other words , the Boy of Gran Dolina would really have been the Girl of Gran Dolina ” , Cecilia García - Campos , lead sketch writer from the Centro Nacional de Investigación de la Evolución Humana ( CENIEH ) , say in astatement .
The somebody in the cave , found at Gran Dolina in Spain , belong to the speciesHomo antecessor , an extinct hominin metal money that lived in Western Europe during the Lower Paleolithic until around 800,000 years ago . They are have a go at it for their unique mixture of modern and archaic feature , withsome researchersspeculating they may comprise the last common ascendant for Neanderthals and modern homo .
report in theJournal of Anthropological Science , the new inquiry looked at theH. antecessorteeth find at the site . Since the tooth enamel and dentin dimensions in dental pieces are sexually dimorphous , they can be used to identify whether the somebody was a male person or female with around 92 percent accuracy . Teeth can also be used to about judge the age of an individual , since they change as they develop . To their surprise , this revealed that individual H3 – antecedently dubbed Boy of Gran Dolina – was likely a female age between 9 and 11 .
But why would a youthful female be subject to such a bloodthirsty show of cannibalism?This is a question that the researchers have previously looked into inanother studyback in 2019 . The skeletal remains ofH. antecessorfound at Gran Dolina carry dentition marks , butcher marks , and show signaling of inwardness descent – which is fairly whole evidence the individuals werechopped up and eaten by a rival group .
While it may seem beastly by our standards , the human action of cannibalism seems to be stringently business . For archaic humans around this time , eating fellow hominins was simply more effective than hunting prey based on the nourishing caloric return and the cost of acquisition .
“ Our analyses show thatHomo antecessor , like any predatory animal , selected its prey pursue the principle of optimize the toll - benefit residual , and they also show that , considering only this residual , humans were a ' in high spirits - place ' prey type . This stand for that , when compare with other prey , a lot of food for thought could be obtained from humans at downcast cost ” , say Jesús Rodríguez of CENIEH , speak in 2019 .
That said , others believe that early humans and Neandtherals commit cannibalism for a very different reason . Some research has shown that they did n’t always eat each other out of nutritionary requisite for food , but perhaps sometimes forreasons of aggression or ritual .
