Neanderthals <i>versus</i> Modern Humans: Evidence for Resource
Competition from Isotopic Modelling

Fabre, Virginie; Condémi, Silvana; Degioanni, Anna; Herrscher, Estelle

doi:10.4061/2011/689315

Cited by 12 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 88 publications

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“…This high intake of animal proteins is usually interpreted as indicative of high activity levels among Neanderthals; sophisticated hunters who spent much of their time pursuing game (Richards, 2002; Richards and Schmitz, ). The consistency of this pattern suggests that high‐meat diet was a rigid dietary model exclusive to Neanderthals, which in turn could have made they vulnerable if competed for food resources with modern humans (Fabre et al, ).…”

Section: Stable Isotope Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

To meat or not to meat? New perspectives onNeanderthal ecology

Fiorenza

Benazzi

Henry

et al. 2014

American J Phys Anthropol

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Neanderthals have been commonly depicted as top predators who met their nutritional needs by focusing entirely on meat. This information mostly derives from faunal assemblage analyses and stable isotope studies: methods that tend to underestimate plant consumption and overestimate the intake of animal proteins. Several studies in fact demonstrate that there is a physiological limit to the amount of animal proteins that can be consumed: exceeding these values causes protein toxicity that can be particularly dangerous to pregnant women and newborns. Consequently, to avoid food poisoning from meat-based diets, Neanderthals must have incorporated alternative food sources in their daily diets, including plant materials as well. In this manuscript, we review traditional as well as more recent approaches for reconstructing the diet in past human populations, and we show how new archaeological discoveries and innovative methods are changing our views of Neanderthal ecology and behavior. We further underline the importance of reconstructing Neanderthal environments derived from palaeoecological data to better understand and interpret the dietary evidence obtained by these methods. Finally, since the intake of specific foods can be invisible to certain techniques and detect by others, we suggest using a more holistic approach by integrating the findings of more than one method. Such comprehensive analyses would enable the reconstruction of the whole dietary spectrum, which is particularly important for species like Neanderthal, who lived under severe and unstable climatic conditions. Neanderthals are undoubtedly the most studied and best-known group in the human fossil record. Despite that, for more than 100 years since their discovery, research on Neanderthal ecology, subsistence strategies, and diet have received remarkably little attention (Ready, 2010). It is only with the emergence of new archeological disciplines and development of innovative analytical approaches in the 1960s, that scholars began to look at Neanderthal behavior and adaptations to their environment. Methods such as faunal analysis, lithic technology, and taphonomic studies progressively led to a general portrait that defined Neanderthals as a homogenous group, with similar nutritional needs typified by a reliance on the consumption of terrestrial animals. This idea was reinforced by the study of stable isotopes and Neanderthal anatomy. The general robusticity of Neanderthal skeletons, with relatively short limbs and heavy trunks, has been interpreted as adaptation to cold stress environments that follow the ecogeographic principles of Bergmann's and Allen's rules (e.g., Trinkaus,

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Section: Stable Isotope Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

To meat or not to meat? New perspectives onNeanderthal ecology

Fiorenza

Benazzi

Henry

et al. 2014

American J Phys Anthropol

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“…There is also archaeological evidence of contact between the two species around 100-60,000 yBP, in what is now Syria, but in spite of some researchers' hypotheses, there is no certainty of interbreeding at that time [29,35,36]. It is certain though that the two species interbred at a later time: both archaeological findings [16,37] and DNA analysis [38] show that there was substantial interbreeding between HS males and HN females, while genetic analyses seem to prove that the HN male/HS female matings were not fertile [39][40][41]. Between 70 and 25,000 yBP the Sapiens colonized all Europe and most of the Russian subcontinent, reaching Asia and displacing local hominins populations, until 15-10,000 yBP when they crossed the Bering strait (at that time covered by a solid ice sheet), reaching into the Americas.…”

Section: Homo Neanderthalensis and Homo Sapiensmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Assuming equiallocation (i.e., c ee,pike = c ee,ax ), the EFs for the two societies are reported in Table 5. An EEA analysis provides though much more insight than this: by solving the system (14)(15)(16)(17) in the unknowns c ee,j it is possible to assess how each processing step affects the total cost.…”

Section: The Eea Balance Equationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Was there some sort of epidemic to which one of the species succumbed [14,15]? Did the large and frequent volcanic events of the late Pleistocene and the related strong and fast climate variations have an impact [16,17]? Some authors [18,19] blame the extinction of the Neanderthal species (HN) to the high rate of accidental mortality during their hunting; others [20,21], to their low fertility.…”

Section: Introduction: Thermodynamics Sustainability and Populationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Exergy Footprint as a Sustainability Indicator: An Application to the Neanderthal–Sapiens Competition in the Late Pleistocene

Sciubba¹

2019

Sustainability

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A thermodynamic analysis of population dynamics and of sustainability provides rigor to many important issues. In this work, the “system society” is analysed in connection with the “system environment” using an exergy metric, and the method includes an internalization of the externalities (capital, labour, environmental effects) conducted on the basis of a “system + environment” balance. In this perspective, this study investigates the Late Pleistocene extinction of the Homo neanderthalensis, which took place in a geologically short time and in the presence of a competing species, the Homo sapiens. The case in study is not trivial, and its choice not casual: in those times, the only factor that could lead to an advantage of one group over the other was their respective resource use intensity. A specific indicator, the exergy footprint (EF), is here applied to measure the total amount of primary resources required to produce a certain (material or immaterial) commodity, including the resources needed for the physical survival of the individuals. On the basis of the available data, the results of a steady-state analysis show that the EF of the Neanderthal was higher than that of the Sapiens, and that with both species sharing the same ecological niche in a time of dwindling resources, the less frugal of the two was also more fragile in an evolutionary sense.

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“…Beide konkurrierten um die gleiche Nahrung, wie Isotopenanalysen belegen (Fabre et al 2011). Mit dem Auftreten des H. sapiens jedoch änderte sich dies.…”

Section: Das Aussterben Des H Neanderthalensisunclassified

Mikronährstoffe als Motor der Evolution

Biesalski

2015

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Neanderthals versus Modern Humans: Evidence for Resource Competition from Isotopic Modelling

Cited by 12 publications

References 88 publications

To meat or not to meat? New perspectives onNeanderthal ecology

To meat or not to meat? New perspectives onNeanderthal ecology

The Exergy Footprint as a Sustainability Indicator: An Application to the Neanderthal–Sapiens Competition in the Late Pleistocene

Mikronährstoffe als Motor der Evolution

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