Matt Pope

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Museum reconstruction of a Neanderthal -

" New data suggest that our evolutionary cousins, The Neanderthals , were diving under the sea for shells.

adds There are signs that the old image of these ancient people is as Brutal and unimaginative wrong.

Until Now , there was little clear evidence that The Neanderthals were swimmers.

But a team of researchers analyzed the shells from a Cave In Italy, said that some were collected from the bottom of the sea of Neanderthals.

results

The Neanderthals live in the Grotta dei Moscerini in the region of Lazio, around 90,000 years ago were the design of the shells in sharp tools.

Paolo Villa of the University of Colorado, Boulder, and colleagues analyzed 171 such tools, all from a local species of molluscs referred to the smooth clam (Callista Chione ). The tools have been placed by archeologists, at the end of the 1940s.

mussel-shells, wash can be distinguished on the beaches of those still living, when they are collected.

The stranded specimens were opaque, sharpened by K. o. against the pebbles on The Shore , perforated by other marine organisms, and studded with barnacles.

Neanderthals used the shells of the smooth clam, Callista Chione , tools

Most of the samples in the case of the Grotta dei Moscerini fit the criteria of the shells collected on a beach.

But outside, a quarter of them a shiny-smooth, and shows no signs of such wear and tear. This suggested that they were from the sea bottom, while the mussels were alive.

Today, Callista Chione is most often fished by dredging, with small boats, or collected by divers in the waters of the Adriatic coast, which is More Than 10m In Depth .

In the Northern part of the Adriatic sea, however, there are some sand banks, where Callista shells can be collected, at depths of between half a Meter to one Meter. In this case, the shells obtained could be, just by wading.

But, said Paola Villa: "It is quite possible that The Neanderthals were collecting mussels as far down as two to four metres," adding, "of course, you have no scuba equipment. "

Dr Matt Pope from The Institute of archaeology at UCL, who was not involved with the study, told Bbc News : "We all come up with exceptional situations, in which, during a storm tossed sea shells on a beach.

"But it's the fact that they occur on More Than an [archaeological] unit, it's the fact that they occur as part of a system of the material to be put on the market in this cave, which suggests that it happens More Than just a single, strange event is. "

seashells can be used to thin, sharp tools

The Evidence is in stark contrast to our old view of The Neanderthals spend much of their time hunting or scavenging big-game animals.

It is known that Neanderthals and fishing in shallow waters, but so far there is no clear evidence for swimming, skin-diving or, in some cases, perhaps, to Wade.

"It is more evidence to place points of Neanderthals in these coastal environments, and time, the use of coastal resources, not only for food but also as raw material for tools," said Dr. Pope.

He said that decades ago, this kind of resource collection used to distinguish early examples for Our Own species, Homo sapiens from The Neanderthals . "We cannot find that the distinction no longer," he said.

"What is nice about this paper is that it includes a Website, which at certain points In Time , if you have a high sea level. located directly on the coast. You can not be there live to see that you have spaces in large numbers for a long time. it looks as if you are equipped for short trips, and you come - bring the materials you need, such as pre-existing tools. "

"Maybe it's a place where you can camp in the season to certain times of the year. Perhaps one of the things you draw, there are these shells, it is to eat wonderful things, through the winter, if there is not a lot of other reliable food around. "

Last year, a team led by Prof Erik Trinkaus of Washington University in St. Louis, USA, published evidence showing that many

This condition is characterized by abnormal bony growths in The Ear canal. It is often seen in people who take part in aquatic sports in cold climates, but it can occur simply because of repeated exposure to cold, wet weather.

At the time The Paper was published, there have been proposals Neanderthals could have been. it's from sleeping on the cold, damp ground

"The archaeological evidence of Moscerini supports the idea of frequent aquatic resources exploitation, based on anatomical data," Paola Villa and colleagues write in the latest paper.

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italy, human evolution

Source of news: bbc.com