Artists impression of a Eurasian cave lion, Panthera leo spelaea
In the third of this week's scientific papers that casually refute creationism by reporting on 'pre-creation' events of which Earth's history is 99.97% composed, we learn that Neanderthals in Europe were hunting cave lions for food and their pelts, 50,000 years ago, during the Paleolithic Age - which came to an end when, bizarrely, creationists believe the Universe was created.
There may well be more papers yet to appear, in what is turning out to be a week of which most creationists will want to remain ignorant, if they haven't already worked out a strategy for coping with the inevitable cognitive dissonance by dismissing the unwanted evidence. To creationists, it must feel at times that science is against them. It is, of course, but that's a problem for creationists, not science. It’s not compulsory to adopt counter-factual beliefs.
The scientific paper is published open access in Scientific Reports and is accompanied by a news release from Reading University. The discovery was made by lead author, PHD student, Gabriele Russo, of Universität Tübingen in Germany, together with a team of colleagues which included archaeologist Dr Annemieke Milks, of the University of Reading.
The skeleton of the cave lion dates to around 50,000 years ago, during the Upper Paleolithic, at a time when anatomically-modern Homo sapiens were just beginning to appear in Eurasia, and Neanderthals had western Eurasia pretty much to themselves.
When was the Upper Paleolithic in Europe? The Upper Paleolithic in Europe is generally considered to have occurred approximately between 40,000 and 10,000 years ago. This period represents the later part of the Paleolithic era and is characterized by significant advancements in human culture and technology, including the creation of intricate art, the development of more sophisticated tools, and the emergence of symbolic and abstract thinking. It was during this time that anatomically modern humans (Homo sapiens) replaced Neanderthals in Europe and created a wide range of innovative tools and artwork. The Upper Paleolithic ended with the advent of the Holocene epoch and the warming climate, which led to changes in the environment and the ways in which people lived.The research and its significance are explained in a University of Reading news release:
Tell me about the evolution, life and extinction of cave lions in this era.
Cave lions, scientifically known as Panthera leo spelaea, were a subspecies of the modern lion (Panthera leo) that lived during the Upper Paleolithic era, approximately between 40,000 and 10,000 years ago. These lions were adapted to the harsh, cold environments of Europe and parts of Asia during the last ice age. Here's some information about their evolution, life, and extinction:The extinction of the cave lion likely resulted from a combination of these factors. By the end of the Upper Paleolithic, these majestic creatures had disappeared from the European landscape. Today, their remains are primarily found in the fossil record and are studied by paleontologists to gain insights into the prehistoric world and the interactions between ancient humans and their environment.
- Evolution: Cave lions likely evolved from an earlier lion subspecies and adapted to the frigid conditions of the Pleistocene epoch. They had several distinctive features, including a larger body size and a more robust build compared to their modern counterparts. These adaptations helped them survive in the colder climate and challenging landscapes.
- Life: Cave lions were carnivorous predators and likely occupied a place near the top of the prehistoric food chain. They primarily hunted large herbivores like bison, reindeer, and horses, which were abundant in the ice age landscapes. Cave paintings and carvings found in various European caves suggest that these ancient lions had significant cultural and symbolic importance for early humans.
- Extinction: The exact cause of the cave lion's extinction is still a subject of debate among scientists. Several factors may have contributed to their demise, including:
- Climate Change: The end of the last ice age led to a warming climate and changing ecosystems, which might have affected the availability of their prey and habitats.
- Competition with Humans: As modern humans (Homo sapiens) spread across Europe during the Upper Paleolithic, they may have competed with cave lions for resources and possibly hunted them.
- Overhunting: Cave lions, like many large mammals of the time, may have been overhunted by early humans for their fur, meat, and other resources.
- Disease and Other Factors: Disease, changing environmental conditions, or other ecological factors could also have played a role in their extinction.
Neanderthals hunted dangerous cave lions, study shows
Neanderthals hunted cave lions and used the skin of this dangerous carnivore, a new study has shown for the first time.
Excavations at Einhornhöhle (Unicorn Cave) in the Harz Mountains (Lower Saxony, Germany) in 2019 uncovered abundant Ice Age animals, among which were a few bones of the extinct cave lion. The bones were discovered in a cave gallery approximately 30 metres from the now-collapsed entrance in a layer that dates to more than 200,000 years ago.
The new study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, outlines how a research team detected a toe bone with a cut mark among the remains of the cave lion. This led to the team determining that Neanderthals removed the lion’s pelt with the claws attached, indicating that they used the skin for their own purposes.
But the bones found at Einhornhöhle did not provide any direct evidence for hunting. In order to contextualise the finding, lead author Gabriele Russo, of Universität Tübingen in Germany, analysed the remains of a cave lion found by a teenager from Siegsdorf in Bavaria. A closer inspection by Russo of the skeleton led to the detection of some unusual damage on a rib. Working together with archaeologist Dr Annemieke Milks, of the University of Reading, the damage was identified as a weapon impact.
The rib lesion clearly differs from bite marks of carnivores and shows the typical breakage pattern of a lesion caused by a hunting weapon.
Gabriele Russo, lead author
Paleoanthropology
Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment
Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Tübingen, GermanyThe 50,000-year-old skeleton has helped researchers to show for the first time that Neanderthals hunted cave lions. The cut marks also show that not only did they kill this apex predator, they also consumed its meat.The lion was probably killed by a spear that was thrust into the lion’s abdomen when it was already lying on the ground.
Dr Annemieke Milks, co-author
Department of Archaeology
University of Reading, Reading, UK.
Top predator
The cave lion had a shoulder height of around 1.3 metres. For around 200,000 years the cave lion was the most dangerous animal in Eurasia, until it went extinct at the end of the Ice Age. Cave lions lived in various environments from the steppe to the mountains and as a top predator hunted large herbivores such as mammoth, bison and horse, as well as cave bear. The regular presence of cave lion bones in Ice Age caves is responsible for the name.
Until today, engagement on a cultural level with that top predator was thought to be absent before the time of Homo sapiens. Among Homo sapiens’ earliest artworks are those known from caves of the Swabian Jura in Southwest-Germany. There, the cave lion is a prominent motif, exemplified by the famous lion man made of ivory dated to around 40,000 years ago.
Cave lions also feature in rock art panels in Grotte Chauvet in south-eastern France, which are about 34,000 years old.
The new results demonstrate that cave lions also held special meaning for Neanderthals. Thomas Terberger, speaker of the project, says: “The interest of humans to gain respect and power from a lion trophy is rooted in Neanderthal behaviour and until modern times the lion is a powerful symbol of rulers!”
The new study contributes to the growing picture of behavioural similarities between Neanderthals and early Homo sapiens. Recently, an engraved giant deer bone from Einhornhöhle showed the ability of Neanderthals to produce and communicate with symbols. The role of cave lions fits with the evidence of more complex Neanderthal behaviours, and could even have laid the basis for later cultural developments by Homo sapiens.
This is a replica of the painting from the Brno Museum Anthropos (Czech Republic). The absence of the mane sometimes leads to these paintings being described as portraits of lionesses.
Source: Wikipedia (Public domain)
AbstractNot only does this present creationists with the archaic hominin problem which shows there never was a founder couple who could be regarded as the founders of our species, so there never was anyone to commit a notional 'Original Sin' the cure for which the Christian church has been claiming a monopoly of for the last 2,000 years, but there is the little problem of so much of this sort of history apparently happening before the Universe was created, according to creationist mythology and cult dogma.
During the Upper Paleolithic, lions become an important theme in Paleolithic art and are more frequent in anthropogenic faunal assemblages. However, the relationship between hominins and lions in earlier periods is poorly known and primarily interpreted as interspecies competition. Here we present new evidence for Neanderthal-cave lion interactions during the Middle Paleolithic. We report new evidence of hunting lesions on the 48,000 old cave lion skeleton found at Siegsdorf (Germany) that attest to the earliest direct instance of a large predator kill in human history. A comparative analysis of a partial puncture to a rib suggests that the fatal stab was delivered with a wooden thrusting spear. We also present the discovery of distal lion phalanges at least 190,000 old from Einhornhöhle (Germany), representing the earliest example of the use of cave lion skin by Neanderthals in Central Europe. Our study provides novel evidence on a new dimension of Neanderthal behavioral complexity.
Figure 1. Paleolithic sites with direct evidence of human-cave lion interaction in form of subsistence activity, culture (i.e., rock or mobile art), or both. 1 Einhornhöhle, 2 Siegsdorf, 3 Gran Dolina, 4 Caverna delle Fate, 5 Chez-Pinaud (Jonzac), 6 Cueva de Bolomir, 7 Le Portel, 8 Grotte du Renne, 9 Hohlenstein-Stadel, 10 Vogelherd, 11 Hohle Fels, 12 La Garma, 13 Chauvet, 14 Peyrat (Saint-Rabier), 15 Pair-non-Pair, 16 La Gravette, 17 Grotte Duruthy, 18 Pavlov I, 19 Dolní Věstonice I, 20 Trois-Frères, 21 Grotte de la Vache (Ariège).
Map was created with ArchGIS Pro version 3.0.5 and raster files were obtained from The Digital Elevation Model over Europe (EU-DEM). Available online: https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/data/copernicus-land-monitoring-service-eu-dem (accessed on 20 February 2023).
Figure 2. Anthropogenic modifications on the Siegsdorf lion skeleton. (A). Siegsdorf lion skeleton with distribution of observed anthropogenic modifications. Elements highlighted in gray represent those that were originally unearthed. (B). Rib III right ventral view with partial puncture; (C). Right pubic bone with cutmarks; (D). Rib VI right ventral view with cutmarks; (E). Right distal femur caudal view with cutmarks. Scale 1 cm.
Figure 3. Details of the puncture on Siegdorf's cave lion rib. (A). CT-scan of the right rib III of Siegsdorf cave lion; (B). Close-up of the hunting lesion; (C). Transversal section of the partial puncture.
Figure 4. Digital ballistic reconstruction of the Siegsdorf lion spear thrust. (A). standing, lateral view; (B). standing, posterior view of rib cage; (C). lying on right side ventral view; (D). lying, posterior view. 3D digital illustration created with Autodesk Maya 2022.
Figure 5. Cave lion remains from Einhornhöhle Area 1. (A). Phalanx III ID 46999448_1384 and close-up view × 30 and × 500 magnifications of the cutmarks; (B). Unmodified Phalanx III; (C). Sesamoid bone. On the right, Illustrations showing the position of the cutmarks (white arrows) and the potential location of the bone elements within the paw of a big cat.Russo, G., Milks, A., Leder, D. et al.
First direct evidence of lion hunting and the early use of a lion pelt by Neanderthals.
Sci Rep 13, 16405 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-42764-0
Copyright: © 2023 The authors.
Published by Springer Nature Ltd. Open access.
Reprinted under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0)
And, of course, if won't be many days before even more of these casual refutations of creationism are produced by research scientists without even trying.
You can read about some of them in future blog posts here in the 'Creationism in Crisis' series.
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