Advertisement

If you have an ACS member number, please enter it here so we can link this account to your membership. (optional)

ACS values your privacy. By submitting your information, you are gaining access to C&EN and subscribing to our weekly newsletter. We use the information you provide to make your reading experience better, and we will never sell your data to third party members.

ENJOY UNLIMITED ACCES TO C&EN

Analytical Chemistry

Neanderthal Copycats

Dating results suggest early species copied body ornamentation from humans

by Sarah Everts
November 5, 2012 | A version of this story appeared in Volume 90, Issue 45

[+]Enlarge
Credit: Marian Vanhaeren & Michèle Julien
Photo shows Neanderthal artifacts found in France.
Credit: Marian Vanhaeren & Michèle Julien

A stash of stone blades, bone artifacts, and body ornaments from Grotte du Renne and Saint-Césaire archaeological sites in France were made by Neanderthals up to about 40,000 years ago, reports a team led by Jean-Jacques Hublin of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, in Leipzig, Germany (Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1212924109). The scientists used accelerator mass spectrometry carbon-14 dating to show that the age of some 40 artifacts is consistent with that of a Neanderthal skeleton found at the site. Whether Neanderthals or humans made these artifacts has been intensely debated, given evidence that humans occupied the sites after Neanderthals. Although Hublin’s data show that Neanderthals made the ornaments, he says that they likely copied the know-how from humans instead of inventing it for themselves. That’s because Neanderthals started making body ornaments after humans arrived in Western Europe, he says.

Article:

This article has been sent to the following recipient:

0 /1 FREE ARTICLES LEFT THIS MONTH Remaining
Chemistry matters. Join us to get the news you need.