Early people hunted beavers 400 thousand years ago – scientists
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About 400,000 years ago, early humans hunted beavers as a food resource, and possibly also for their pelts.
This was the conclusion reached by a team of scientists from the University of Mainz and the Leibniz Center for Archeology in Germany, as well as the University of Leiden in the Netherlands.
The corresponding study was published in the journal Scientific Reports, writes Science Daily.
As the authors of the study note, people of the Middle Pleistocene (our distant ancestors who lived about 780 thousand years ago) systematically consumed beavers, and therefore had a more diverse diet than was known until now.
| Photo: halouskam/Depositphotos |
Previously, it was believed that people of this period mainly ate large mammals, such as bulls and rhinoceroses.
Sabina Gaudzinski-Windhäuser, professor of the Department of Ancient Studies, Section of Pre- and Protohistoric Archeology of the University of Mainz, notes that until now, traces of cuts on Paleolithic beaver bones have been found very rarely.
During the long excavations of the German archaeologist Dietrich Mania in Bilzingsleben, a large number of beaver remains were discovered.
Researchers used magnifying glasses and digital microscopes to examine the bones of at least 400 beavers unearthed decades ago. This allowed them to identify cut marks from stone tools, which indicate that the animals were consumed.
“Interestingly, the remains at Bilzingsleben mostly represent young adult beavers“, says Gaudzinski-Windheuser.
This indicates that people at that time deliberately hunted adults and fat-rich animals, because fat was a very important food resource at that time.
“Until now, it was thought that around 50,000 years ago, people in Europe ate mainly large game, and that this was an important difference from the dietary preferences of modern people. We have now discovered that the dietary spectrum of early humans was much wider“, Gaudzinski-Windheuser concludes.
Read also: How dinosaurs could have affected the lifespan of humans – research
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