Ancient humans scavenged this enormous elephant 300,000 years ago

Humanos antigos rasparam este elefante enorme há 300.000 anos

By Laura Geggel - Associate Editor 6 hours ago

This is how the ancient humans may have discovered the elephant's carcass on a lake shore at what is now Schöningen, Germany.(Image: © Benoît Clarys).

 

Arqueólogos descobriram o esqueleto quase completo de um elefante enorme e agora extinto que viveu cerca de 300.000 anos atrás, no que é hoje a cidade de Schöningen, no norte da Alemanha, segundo uma nova pesquisa.

Embora esse elefante - o elefante euroasiático de ponta reta (Palaeoloxodon antiquus) - provavelmente tenha morrido na velhice, os comedores de carne prontamente o devoraram; marcas de mordida em seus ossos sugerem que os carnívoros festejavam com o animal morto, e flocos de sílex e ferramentas ósseas encontradas perto do elefante indicam que os humanos vasculharam o que restava, disseram os pesquisadores.

This 3D image was created by stitching together 500 individual photos that were taken of the straight-tusked elephant. (Image credit: Ivo Verheijen/Schöningen Research Station)

"The Stone Age hunters probably cut meat, tendons and fat from the carcass," project researcher Jordi Serangeli, head of the excavation in Schöningen, said in a statement.


O elefante morreu no lado oeste de um vasto lago, um indício de que pereceu por causas naturais.

"Os elefantes geralmente permanecem próximos e na água quando estão doentes ou velhos", disse Ivo Verheijen, estudante de doutorado em arqueozoologia e paleontologia da Universidade de Tübingen. Além disso, o elefante, uma fêmea, usava dentes, sugerindo que estava velho quando morreu, disse ele.
Imagem 2 de 4

This 3D image was created by stitching together 500 individual photos that were taken of the straight-tusked elephant. (Image credit: Ivo Verheijen/Schöningen Research Station)

Image gallery

The remains from the front part of the elephant's body are shown here. (Image credit: Jens Lehmann/Niedersächsisches Landesamt für Denkmalpflege)

Excavator Martin Kursch uncovers one of the elephant's feet. (Image credit: Ivo Verheijen/Schöningen Research Station)

The excavation site in Schöningen, Germany (Image credit: Jordi Serangeli/Schöningen Research Station)

Researchers have found the remains of at least 10 elephants dating to the Lower Paleolithic — also known as the Old Stone Age (about 3 million to 300,000 years ago) —  over the past several years at Schöningen. But this new find is by far the most complete. The remains include 7.5-foot-long (2.3 meters) tusks — which are 125% longer than the average 6-foot-long (1.8 m) tusk of a modern African elephant, according to Encyclopedia Britannica. The researchers also found the complete lower jaw, numerous vertebrae and ribs, large bones from three of its four legs and all five of its delicate hyoid bones, which are found in the neck and help support the tongue and voice box. 

This P. antiquus elephant had a shoulder height of about 10.5 feet (3.2 m) and would have weighed about 7.5 tons (6.8 metric tons). "It was therefore larger than today's African elephant cows," Verheijen said.

Perto desses restos, os pesquisadores encontraram 30 pequenos flocos de pederneira e duas ferramentas de ossos longos. Os micro flocos incorporados nesses dois ossos sugerem que os humanos antigos que sequestraram o elefante os usaram para afiar ferramentas de pedra (chamadas de knapping) no local, disse a pesquisadora do projeto Bárbara Rodríguez Álvarez, arqueóloga da Universidade de Tübingen.

É de notar que os humanos antigos que provavelmente mataram o elefante não eram o Homo sapiens. As primeiras evidências de H. sapiens na Europa datam de cerca de 45.000 anos atrás, segundo escavações em uma caverna na Bulgária, segundo um estudo publicado na semana passada na revista Nature Ecology and Evolution. Em vez disso, esses catadores humanos provavelmente eram H. heidelbergensis, um parente humano extinto que viveu entre 700.000 a 200.000 anos atrás, disseram os pesquisadores na Alemanha.

Wildlife watering hole

The lake was a popular hole for elephants, according to several of their preserved footprints just 330 feet (100 m) from the new elephant excavation site. 

"A small herd of adults and younger animals must have passed through," Flavio Altamura, a researcher at the Department of Antiquities at Sapienza University in Rome, said in the statement. "The heavy animals were walking parallel to the lakeshore. Their feet sank into the mud, leaving behind circular tracks."

Related: Incredible photos capture last glimpse of long-tusked 'elephant queen'

These elephants would have lived in a comfortable climate, comparable to today's; about 300,000 years ago, Europe was in the Reinsdorf interglacial, a warmer period bookended by two glacial (or colder) periods. Other animals thrived there, too. About 20 kinds of large animals lived around the lake, including lions, bears, saber-toothed cats, rhinoceroses, wild horses, deer and large cattle, according to excavations. "The wealth of wildlife was similar to that of modern Africa," Serangeli said.

All of these animals attracted ancient human hunters. Archaeologists have found the remains of 10 wooden spears and one throwing stick from 300,000 years ago, according to a study published online April 20 in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution. 

The new finding was uncovered in a collaborative effort between the Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment at the University of Tübingen in Germany and the Lower Saxony State Office for Heritage. The research will be published in the magazine "Archäologie in Deutschland" (Archaeology in Germany) and was presented at a press conference in Schöningen on May 19.