Friday, September 29, 2006
Neanderthal 'butcher's shop' found near Somme (Caours, France)
From The Independent (UK): France - Neanderthal finds are like prehistoric buses. You wait for tens of thousands of years, and then two important revelations come along together.
French and Belgian archaeologists have found proof that Neanderthals - mankind's closest relatives - were living in near-tropical conditions, hunting rhinoceros and elephant, close to what is now France's Channel coast 125,000 years ago.
No traces of Neanderthal activity have previously been found in north-west Europe during this period - a 15,000-year interval between two ice ages.
Historians previously thought that Neanderthals, who thrived in cold conditions, had failed to adapt to the warmer weather and had retreated to the east or to the north. The new site at Caours, near Abbeville, close to the mouth of the river Somme, proves that this was not so.
...Earlier this month, British archaeologists reported that they had found evidence that a few members of the species (Homo neanderthalis) may have survived in caves in Gibraltar much later than was previously thought. [Neandertal, Neandertals, Science, Evolution, Anthropology, Age]
Continued at "Neanderthal 'butcher's shop' found near Somme"
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See "Neanderthals and humans lived side by side: Gorham's Cave, Gibraltar" for links to a New Scientist report, Nature technical papers, and other press reports regarding the Gibraltar discoveries.
Books on Neanderthals from the Science and Evolution Bookshop: UK | US
Books on Human Origins from the Science and Evolution Bookshop: UK | US
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