News Anthropology

Neandertals’ tough Stone Age lives

By Bruce Bower

- More than 2 years ago

Neandertals that 43,000 years ago inhabited what’s now northern Spain faced periodic food shortages and possibly resorted to cannibalism to survive, according to a new investigation.

CAVE FINDS. A block of sand and clay from El Sidrón cave in Spain holds Neandertal foot bones (left) and ribs and a backbone (right). Rosas

These Neandertals evolved shorter, broader faces with a less pronounced slope than northern European Neandertals did, say Antonio Rosas of the National Museum of Natural Sciences in Madrid and his colleagues.