Cave Bears and Mankind

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www.reuters.com/article/us-science-bears/genetic-study-implicates-humans-in-demise-of-prehistoric-cave-bear-idUSKCN1V51EL?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29

Genetic study implicates humans in demise of prehistoric cave bear

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Genetic research that reconstructed the past population dynamics of the cave bear, a prominent prehistoric denizen of Europe, implicates Homo sapiens rather than climate cooling in the Ice Age extinction of these brawny plant-loving beasts. Scientists said on Thursday they obtained genome data from 59 cave bears from bones unearthed at 14 sites in France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Serbia, Spain and Switzerland.

Using this, they detected a population downturn roughly 50,000 years ago coinciding with the arrival of our species in eastern Europe and then a dramatic decline starting about 40,000 years ago coinciding with the spread of Homo sapiens throughout Europe. It ultimately went extinct about 20,000 years ago.

The cave bear (scientific name Ursus spelaeus) was one of the charismatic inhabitants of Ice Age Europe alongside animals like the cave lion, woolly rhino, woolly mammoth and steppe bison. It was as big as a polar bear but strictly herbivorous. Firmly in the consciousness of humans in Europe, the bear was depicted in prehistoric cave paintings.

There has been a scientific debate about whether a cooling climate doomed the bears by reducing vegetation central to their diet or whether it was human encroachment including hunting and taking over the caves where the bears hibernated and gave birth.

The steep population decline identified in the study predated climate cooling associated with the most recent Ice Age, said paleogeneticist Verena Schuenemann of the University of Zurich in Switzerland.

The bear’s population also had remained stable for long periods prior to that, including two pronounced cold stretches and multiple other cooling episodes, Schuenemann added.

Homo sapiens originated in Africa more than 300,000 years ago, later spreading worldwide. The study offered fresh evidence that the arrival of Homo sapiens presaged doom for numerous species across Eurasia, the Americas and Australia.

“There is more and more evidence that modern humans have played a determinant role in the decline and extinction of large mammals once they spread around the planet, starting around 50,000 years ago,” biogeologist Hervé Bocherens of the University of Tübingen in Germany said.

“This happened not just by hunting these mammals to extinction, but by causing demographic decline of keystone species, such as very large herbivores, that led to ecosystems’ collapse and a cascade of further extinctions,” Bocherens added.

Before the arrival of Homo sapiens, the bear’s population had remained robust even though it shared its territory with another human species, the Neanderthals, who also went extinct after Homo sapiens invaded Eurasia.

The research was published in the journal Scientific Reports.

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320,000-Year-Old Cutmarked Bones Provide Evidence for Exploitation of Bear Skins

www.sci.news/archaeology/schoningen-bear-skins-11508.html

Researchers from the University of Tübingen and elsewhere have unearthed the cutmarked bones of cave bears at the Middle Pleistocene site of Schöningen in Lower Saxony, Germany. Bear skins have high insulating properties and might have played a role in the adaptations of Middle Pleistocene hominins, such as Homo heidelbergensis depicted here, to the cold and harsh winter conditions of Northwestern Europe. Image credit: Benoît Clarys.   

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“Cut marks on bones are often interpreted in archaeology as an indication of the utilization of meat,” said lead author Dr. Ivo Verheijen, a researcher with the Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Paleoenvironment at the University of Tübingen and the Forschungsmuseum Schöningen.

“But there is hardly any meat to be recovered from hand and foot bones. In this case, we can attribute such fine and precise cut marks to the careful stripping of the skin.”

“A bear’s winter coat consists of both long outer hairs that form an airy protective layer and short, dense hairs that provide particularly good insulation. Bears, including extinct cave bears, needed a highly insulating coat for hibernation.”

In their study, Dr. Verheijen and colleagues examined the 320,000-year-old bear bones from the Schöningen site in Germany.

The very thin cut marks found on the specimens indicate delicate butchering and show similarities in butchery patterns to bears from other Paleolithic sites.

“These newly discovered cut marks are an indication that about 300,000 years ago, people in northern Europe were able to survive in winter thanks in part to warm bear skins,” Dr. Verheijen said.

“But how were the bear skins obtained? Schöningen plays a crucial role in the discussion about the origin of hunting, because the world’s oldest spears were discovered here.”

“Did the people of that time also hunt bears? There are some indications for this.”

“If only adult animals are found at an archaeological site, this is usually considered an indication of hunting — at Schöningen, all the bear bones and teeth belonged to adult individuals.”

“In addition, bear skin must be removed shortly after the animal’s death, otherwise the hair is lost and the skin becomes unusable.”

“Since the animal was skinned, it couldn’t have been dead for long at that point.”

“The find opens up a new perspective,” said senior author Professor Nicholas Conard, a researcher with the Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Paleoenvironment, the Institute for Archaeological Sciences, and the Department of Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology at the University of Tübingen.

“The location of the cut marks indicates that the cave bears were also exploited for their skins.”

“So animals were not only used for food, but their pelts were also essential for survival in the cold.”

“The use of bear skins is likely a key adaptation of early humans to the climate in the north.”

A paper describing the findings was published in the Journal of Human Evolution.