Hey, early man had to eat something
Via Paco’s Enterprises, Neanderthals may have become extinct because they were finger-lickin’ good:
One of science’s most puzzling mysteries – the disappearance of the Neanderthals – may have been solved. Modern humans ate them, says a leading fossil expert.
…Fernando Rozzi, of Paris’s Centre National de la Récherche Scientifique, said the jawbone had probably been cut into to remove flesh, including the tongue. Crucially, the butchery was similar to that used by humans to cut up deer carcass in the early Stone Age.
Now, if you’re going to grill that, you can just treat it like any steak or hamburger. If you want a bigger piece – a roast or a whole leg or something – make sure you’re using indirect heat, because that’ll take longer.
Just make sure you marinate it a good long time. Those guys didn’t bathe much.
Some researchers believe Neanderthals may have failed to compete effectively with Homo sapiens for resources, or were more susceptible to the impact of climate change. But others believe our interactions were violent and terminal for the Neanderthals.
Congress is expected to issue a formal apology sometime next week.
But wait! Not everyone is convinced that Neanderthals were the stone age’s answer to takeout chicken:
“One set of cut marks does not make a complete case for cannibalism,” said Francesco d’Errico, of the Institute of Prehistory in Bordeaux. It was also possible that the jawbone had been found by humans and its teeth used to make a necklace, he said.
“This is a very important investigation,” said Professor Chris Stringer, of the Natural History Museum, London. “We do need more evidence, but this could indicate modern humans and Neanderthals were living in the same area of Europe at the same time, that they were interacting, and that some of these interactions may have been hostile.
I love this last part:
“This does not prove we systematically eradicated the Neanderthals or that we regularly ate their flesh. But it does add to the evidence that competition from modern humans probably contributed to Neanderthal extinction.”
Excuse me? We?
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