Las estrategias de caza de los neandertales en Combe-Grenall no se han visto afectadas por el cambio climático

Los restos de animales capturados en Combe-Grenal, Francia, mostraron que se obtuvieron continuamente de hábitats abiertos similares a la tundra.

Un estudio de Emilie Berlioz del CNRS/Université Toulouse Jean Jaurès y colegas, y publicado en la revista Mas uno, encontró que los neandertales en Combe-Grenal, Francia, preferían cazar en ambientes abiertos y mantuvieron esta estrategia a pesar de los períodos de cambio climático. Esta investigación fue parte del Proyecto ANR DeerPal y proporciona información valiosa sobre los hábitos de caza de los neandertales en esta región.

Durante miles de años durante el Paleolítico Medio, desde hace unos 150.000 a 45.000 años, los neandertales hicieron de Combe-Grenal en Francia su hogar. Estos antiguos humanos cazaban la fauna local, cuyos restos se han descubierto en el sitio. El área sufrió frecuentes fluctuaciones en las condiciones climáticas y ambientales durante la ocupación neandertal, lo que afectó el comportamiento de la fauna local.

Modelos dentales para análisis microdental, con el objetivo de descifrar los ambientes antiguos que explotaron los neandertales. Crédito: Aurora Díaz Obregón, CC-BY 4.0

En este estudio, Berlioz y sus colegas investigaron las preferencias de hábitat[{» attribute=»»>species hunted by the Neanderthals to investigate whether these environmental shifts affected Neanderthal hunting strategies.

The authors examined nearly 400 specimens of hunted animals from the site, including bison, aurochs, red deer, and reindeer, using wear on the animals’ teeth to infer their diets during the final days of their lives. The animals were found to have fed predominantly on plants growing in an open, tundra-like environment. This pattern was consistent across the many millennia recorded at Combe-Grenal, suggesting that these hunted animals continued to prefer an open-habitat feeding ecology, even during times of significant climate fluctuations.

From dental facets to paleoecological reconstructions. Credit: Emilie Berlioz, CC-BY 4.0

As a result, Neanderthal hunters “stayed in the open”, and were not forced to switch to hunting tactics adapted to close encounters in forested environments. In Combe-Grenal, these results put into perspective the link generally established between the evolution of the production of lithic tools and the adaptation of hunting strategies of human populations in response to environmental changes

This information is essential to understanding the influences of local environmental changes on material culture or human history. Further examination of similar data at other sites will allow researchers to investigate whether this trend holds true at different times and in different regions.

The authors add: “Dental microwear texture analysis of ungulate preys at Combe-Grenal shows Neanderthal hunting strategies were unaffected by climatic and environmental oscillations throughout millennia.”

Reference: “A long-term perspective on Neanderthal environment and subsistence: Insights from the dental microwear texture analysis of hunted ungulates at Combe-Grenal (Dordogne, France)” by Emilie Berlioz, Eugénie Capdepon and Emmanuel Discamps, 18 January 2023, PLOS ONE.
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0278395