Like modern humans and primates, Neanderthals — our closest evolutionary cousins — are thought to have lived in groups, but their size and composition have been difficult to infer from archeological and fossil remains.
However, scientists have reported the discovery of 257 footprints along the Normandy shore in France that were immaculately preserved more than 80,000 years ago, offering major new clues into the social structures of those that left them.
Their work, published on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggests that the band numbered 10 to 13 individuals, mostly children and adolescents, along with a few very tall — likely male — adults, who could have been up to 190cm in height, judging from their foot sizes.
Photo courtesy of Dominique Cliquet / AFP
Jeremy Duveau, a doctoral student at France’s National Museum of Natural History and one of the study’s coauthors, said that the footprints were left in muddy soil, then quickly preserved by wind-driven sand when the area was part of a dune system, creating a snapshot in time.
The Rozel site was discovered by amateur archeologist Yves Roupin in the 1960s, but it was not until 2012, when it was faced with the twin dangers of wind and tidal erosion, that annual excavations began with government support.
Tens of meters of sand were extracted with mechanical shovels to reach the layers that were of interest. The team then switched to brushes to carry out the last phase of the delicate excavation work that from 2012 to 2017 led to the identification of 257 footprints, and hundreds more since.
The footprints were found among what the team called “abundant archeological material” indicating butchery operations and stone tool production, and date back to a time when only Neanderthals, not anatomically modern humans, lived in western Europe.
“They record a kind of snapshot into the lives of individuals over a very short period,” Duveau said. “That gives us some insight into the composition of the group, but it is possible that it represents only those members of the group who happened to be outside.”
“The conservation of footprints requires a sort of miracle: We have to get very, very lucky,” Duveau added.
Before Rozel, only nine confirmed Neanderthal footprints were found in Greece, Romania, Gibraltar and France.
Pakistani police yesterday said a father shot dead his daughter after she refused to delete her TikTok account. In the Muslim-majority country, women can be subjected to violence by family members for not following strict rules on how to behave in public, including in online spaces. “The girl’s father had asked her to delete her TikTok account. On refusal, he killed her,” a police spokesperson said. Investigators said the father killed his 16-year-old daughter on Tuesday “for honor,” the police report said. The man was subsequently arrested. The girl’s family initially tried to “portray the murder as a suicide” said police in
The military is to begin conscripting civilians next year, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet said yesterday, citing rising tensions with Thailand as the reason for activating a long-dormant mandatory enlistment law. The Cambodian parliament in 2006 approved a law that would require all Cambodians aged 18 to 30 to serve in the military for 18 months, although it has never been enforced. Relations with Thailand have been tense since May, when a long-standing territorial dispute boiled over into cross-border clashes, killing one Cambodian soldier. “This episode of confrontation is a lesson for us and is an opportunity for us to review, assess and
The Russian minister of foreign affairs warned the US, South Korea and Japan against forming a security partnership targeting North Korea as he visited the ally country for talks on further solidifying their booming military and other cooperation. Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov spoke on Saturday in Wonsan City, North Korea, where he met North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un and conveyed greetings from Russian President Vladimir Putin. Kim during the meeting reaffirmed his government’s commitment to “unconditionally support and encourage all measures” taken by Russia in its conflict with Ukraine. Pyongyang and Moscow share identical views on “all strategic issues in
‘FALSE NARRATIVE’: China and the Solomon Islands inked a secretive security pact in 2022, which is believed to be a prelude to building a Chinese base, which Beijing denied The Australian government yesterday said it expects China to spy on major military drills it is conducting with the US and other allies. It also renewed a charge — denounced by Beijing as a “false narrative” — that China wants to establish a military base in the South Pacific. The comments by a government minister came as Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese made a six-day visit to China to bolster recently repaired trade ties. More than 30,000 military personnel from 19 nations are set to join in the annual Talisman Sabre exercises from yesterday across Australia and Papua New Guinea. “The Chinese military have
RSS