"Traveling" Neandethals

"Neanderthals travelled more than first thought

Analysis of a 40,000-year-old tooth found in southern
Greece suggests Neanderthals were more mobile than
once thought, paleontologists said. Analysis of the
tooth - part of the first and only Neanderthal remains
found in Greece - showed the ancient human had
spent at least part of its life away from the area where
it died. "Neanderthal mobility is highly controversial,"
said paleoanthropologist Katerina Harvati at the Max
Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in
Leipzig, Germany. Some experts believe Neanderthals
roamed over very limited areas, but others say they
must have been more mobile, particularly when
hunting, Harvati said. Until now, experts only had
indirect evidence, including stone used in tools,
Harvati said. "Our analysis is the first that brings
evidence from a Neanderthal fossil itself," she said.
The findings by the Max Planck Institute team were
published in the Journal of Archaeological Science.

The tooth was found in a seaside excavation in
Greece's southern Peloponnese region in 2002. The
team analyzed tooth enamel for ratios of a strontium
isotope, a naturally occurring metal found in food and
water. Levels of the metal vary in different areas. Eleni
Panagopoulou of the Paleoanthropology-Speleology
Department of Southern Greece said the tooth's levels
of strontium showed that the Neanderthal grew up at
least 20 kilometres from the discovery site. "Our
findings prove that ... their settlement networks were
broader and more organized than we believed,"
Panagopoulou said.

Clive Finlayson, an expert on Neanderthals and
director of the Gibraltar Museum, disagreed with the
finding's significance. "I would have been surprised if
Neanderthals didn't move at least 20 kilometres in
their lifetime, or even in a year ... We're talking about
humans, not trees," Finlayson said.


Sources: Associated Press, The Guardian (8 February
2008), C2008), Canadian Press (9 February 2008)"

(Stonepages Archaeo News, 10 feb)


Great science! Do they think Neanderthals just sat
in front of their cave waiting for the food to arrive?
20 kilometers is nothing, not even in a day.

--
p.a.
.

Relevant Pages

  • 40,000 year old Neanderthal tooth suggests mobility
    ... 40,000 year old Neanderthal tooth found in Greece suggests greater ... mobility of Neanderthals than previously believed. ... A 40,000-year-old tooth is seen in this undated hand out photo ...
    (sci.archaeology)
  • New: Tooth scan reveals Neanderthal mobility.
    ... ATHENS, Greece - Analysis of a 40,000-year-old tooth found in southern ... Greece suggests Neanderthals were more mobile than once thought, ... "Neanderthal mobility is highly controversial," said ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: New: Tooth scan reveals Neanderthal mobility.
    ... ATHENS, Greece - Analysis of a 40,000-year-old tooth found in southern ... Greece suggests Neanderthals were more mobile than once thought, ... Analysis of the tooth -- part of the first and only Neanderthal remains ... Neanderthal grew up at least 12.5 miles from the discovery site. ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Early homo / Neandertal Children Developed Similarly
    ... Modern humans and Neanderthals may have had childhoods ... according to new research that focused on tooth ... development as a marker for properties of growth and aging. ... While Neanderthals, who went extinct 30,000 years ago, have been ...
    (sci.anthropology.paleo)
  • Re: On Neanderthals, with me complaining
    ... Neanderthals were more mobile than previously ... The findings came after analysis of a ... and/or expected Neanderthal males would split ...
    (talk.origins)