These teeth reveal the very unpleasant portion of a Neanderthal some 65,000 years ago .
Researchers have re - examined two Neanderthal teeth and proven that the incisor were once eaten and then sick . The fresh study , pass by archeologist from theNational Center for Scientific Research(CNRS ) in Paris and published in the journalPaleo , asks the question : what ( or who ) would do such a matter ?
The teeth were discovered at a famous archeologic site near Marillac , France . First excavated in 1967 , archeologist have since discovered a wealth of Neanderthal and other animal remains dating back to the Pleistocene era .
Scientists had antecedently struggle to identify the teeth as the stomach Zen and digestive enzyme of whatever eat them had caused damage to enamel and dentine . So much so , the research worker first recall they were the Milk River tooth of cattle or cervid . The researcher impart that it ’s fairly likely many collection of skeletal corpse contain partially suffer human tooth that have been err for the teeth of other mammals .
Now armed with the knowledge that these tooth belonged to a Neanderthal , the team were tasked with piecing together the scenario of how they were eat up and partly digested . Was the Neanderthal track down down by a vulture , scavaged upon , or even cannibalise ?
former archeological workat the same web site found many Neanderthal bones that had been hack and flog , intimate they had been butchered and eaten . However , the researchers say that cannibals are not the quality suspect .
A much more likely culprit is the cave hyaena , also experience as the Ice Age spotted hyena , a much larger , extinct congener of the forward-looking - solar day hyena in Africa . This species would have been one of the largest animate being around at the time and instances of Upper Palaeolithic rock art show that the beast would have also been bump in France . Other archaeological findshave also suggested that they like to munch on human remains .
patently , archaeologists remain conservative about specific events like this that pass off over 65,000 years ago , but it seems like this species fits the bill .
" At that metre , it was plausibly the most life-threatening carnivore in Western Europe , " Bruno Maureille , music director of research at the CNRS , toldLive Science . " When you see the size of a hyena mandible , it is something that is more than impressive . "
So , it looks like this unfortunate Neanderthal died , then had its case chewed off by a cave hyaena who then threw up . What a way to go .
