Ancient people could hibernate in winter
Greek archaeologists, after examining the remains of ancient people from the cave of Sima de los Ouessos in Spain, made an unexpected discovery. They suggested that people might hibernate during the cold season, L'Antropologie reports .
The remains belonged to Homo heidelbergensis (Heidelberg man) – hominids who are considered the predecessors of the Neanderthals. They lived about 500 thousand years ago.
Scientists managed to find 7,500 bones belonging to 29 individuals. They noticed that many of them suffered from diseases caused by a lack of vitamin D (for example, from rickets). This was especially pronounced in adolescents. Such diseases were uncommon in early hominids, but they are often seen in animals hibernating.
The study authors noted that Homo heidelbergensis lived during one of the most severe ice ages in the history of the planet. Perhaps, as a result, they developed some defense mechanisms that the rest of the Homo genus do not have.
According to scientists, in winter, hominids went into caves and did not go out into the sun for months. It is possible that at the same time they fell into a state resembling hibernation. For other hominids, this ability turned out to be irrelevant, since they lived in warm climates and had access to fatty meat containing sufficient amounts of nutrients.
Previously, scientists examined the remains of one of the first humanoid creatures on the planet. It turned out that he is not the ancestor of humans, but of monkeys.