Find scientists: Neanderthals in Germany hunted giant elephants

The discovery of prehistoric remains shows how the Neanderthals who lived in what is now Germany hunted huge elephants. The 125,000-year-old bones of 70 giant animals, each about three times the size of modern Asian elephants, have been discovered near German Halle.

Neanderthals may have lived in larger groups than previously thought, preying on massive elephants that were three times the size of modern ones, according to a new study.

The researchers arrived at their findings, published in the journal Science Advances on Wednesday, based on a 125,000-year-old skeletal remains of straight-tusked elephants found near Halle in central Germany.

The bones of about 70 Pleistocene-era elephants were discovered in the 1980s in a huge coal pit that has since been turned into an artificial lake.

The elephants of that time were much larger than the woolly mammoth and three times the size of the modern Asian elephant: an adult male could weigh up to 13 tons.

“Hunting these giant animals and butchering them completely was part of the life of the Neanderthals in this place,” Will Robbrooks, co-author of the study, told AFP.

“This is the first clear evidence of elephant hunting in human evolution,” said Robrux, professor of archeology at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands.

The study suggests that Neanderthals who lived in the area for 2,000 to 4,000 years were less mobile and formed social units “significantly larger than commonly thought.”

“Neanderthals weren’t simple slaves of nature, real hippies living off the land,” Robrux says. “They actually shaped their environment with fire … and also had a big impact on the biggest animals that were in the world at the time.”

The researchers determined that the elephants were hunted based on the age and sex of the remains found in the quarry. Most of the animals were male, and there were few young or old.

“This is a typical choice made by hunters who hunt for the biggest prey,” explains Robrux.

Adult male elephants would be easier to hunt than females, who tend to move in herds to protect their young. “While adult males are lonely most of the time,” Robrux says. “This way, they are easier to immobilize, driving them into mud and pit traps. And these are the biggest calorie bombs that have walked these landscapes.”

Researchers believe that Neanderthals were able to store the huge amount of food provided by one elephant, and this would be enough for them for several months.

“An average male elephant weighing about 10 tons would give something like at least 2,500 daily rations for an adult Neanderthal,” Robrux said. “They could have dealt with this either by keeping the meat for longer periods of time – that’s something we didn’t know – or simply by the fact that they lived in much, much larger groups than we usually thought.”

The researchers said that Neanderthals butchered animals with flint tools that left clear marks on well-preserved bones. “These are classic cut marks that form when meat is cut and scraped off the bone,” Robrux said.

Traces of charcoal fires used by Neanderthals have also been found, suggesting that they may have dried meat by hanging it on racks and building a fire under it.

Robbrooks said that while the study provides evidence that Neanderthals lived in large social groups, it’s hard to gauge exactly how big those groups really were.

“But if you have a 10-ton elephant and you want to process this animal before it goes rancid, you need something like 20 people to finish it in a week,” the scientist said.