Was a Neanderthal child eaten by a giant bird?

Was a Neanderthal child killed and eaten by a giant BIRD? Polish researchers find hand bones that have passed through ‘a large bird’s digestive system’

  • Small hand bones were found in a cave in Southern Poland’s Malopolska region
  • New analysis shows that the bones are from a  Neanderthal child`s hand
  • Marks on the bones show they passed through a bird’s digestive system 
  • Researchers unsure whether the bird attacked and ate the young Neanderthal or scavenged the remains of a dead child
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Polish researchers have revealed a bizarre bone find showing a Neanderthal child’s hand bones that ware eaten by a giant bird.   

The small hand bones were found in a cave in Southern Poland’s Malopolska region, according to Science in Poland, a Polish government funded site.

Researchers initially thought they were animal bones, until they were re-analyzed earlier this year.

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Researchers at Jagiellonian University in Krakow say tiny holes in the bones, found in a cave in South Poland, show they passed through a ‘large bird’s digestive system’

The new analysis shows that the bones are phalanges – digital bones of a Neanderthal child`s hand.

Less than 1cm long, they are so fragile researchers are unable to perform DNA analysis on them. 

Researchers at  Jagiellonian University in Krakow say tiny holes in the bones show they passed through a ‘large bird’s digestive system’.

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Less than 1cm long, the bones are so fragile researchers are unable to perform DNA analysis on them

Researchers noted the ‘ characteristic, porous surface of the bones, dotted with dozens of holes, reminiscent of a strainer’. 

‘Analyses show that this is the result of passing through the digestive system of a large bird,’ said Professor Paweł Valde-Nowak from the Institute of Archeology of the Jagiellonian University in Kraków.

‘This is the first such known example from the Ice Age’ he added.

‘This is a unique discovery.’ 

However, researchers say they are whether the bird attacked and ate the young Neanderthal or scavenged the remains of a dead child. 


The small hand bones were found in a cave in Southern Poland’s Malopolska region


The 115,000 year old bones are the oldest ever found in Poland. Pictured, researchers in the cave

‘The bones our team discovered in Cave Ciemna are the oldest human remains from the area of today`s Poland, they are about 115,000 years old’ Valde-Nowa added.   

Experts from the Jagiellonian University and Washington University in St. Louis worked on the new analysis, along with the Archaeological Museum of Krakow and the Polish Academy of Sciences.

The results are due to be published in the Journal of Paleolithic Archaeology later this year.   

WHEN DID HUMAN ANCESTORS FIRST EMERGE?

The timeline of human evolution can be traced back millions of years. Experts estimate that the family tree goes as such:

55 million years ago – First primitive primates evolve

15 million years ago – Hominidae (great apes) evolve from the ancestors of the gibbon

8 million years ago – First gorillas evolve. Later, chimp and human lineages diverge


A recreation of a Neanderthal man is pictured 

5.5 million years ago – Ardipithecus, early ‘proto-human’ shares traits with chimps and gorillas

4 million years ago – Ape like early humans, the Australopithecines appeared. They had brains no larger than a chimpanzee’s but other more human like features 

3.9-2.9 million years ago – Australoipithecus afarensis lived in Africa.  

2.7 million years ago – Paranthropus, lived in woods and had massive jaws for chewing  

2.3 million years ago – Homo habalis first thought to have appeared in Africa

1.85 million years ago – First ‘modern’ hand emerges 

1.8 million years ago – Homo ergaster begins to appear in fossil record

1.6 million years ago – Hand axes become the first major technological innovation

800,000 years ago – Early humans control fire and create hearths. Brain size increases rapidly

400,000 years ago – Neanderthals first begin to appear and spread across Europe and Asia

300,000 to 200,000 years ago – Homo sapiens – modern humans – appear in Africa

50,000 to 40,000 years ago – Modern humans reach Europe 

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