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According to a new theory, Neanderthal people and their ancestors could sleep during harsh winters. The researchers based their assumption that traces of the winter sleep remained on the petrified skeletal remains, The Guardian reported Sunday.
The researchers, writes the MTI, examined fossil skeletal remains unearthed at the Sima de los Huesos archaeological site in Spain. After their analysis, they came to the conclusion that prehistoric peoples protected themselves from the extremely cold winter by sleeping. The petrified bones are more than 400,000 years old and may have been the remains of early Neanderthals or their ancestors.
The researchers said that other bone damage was the same as seen in the bones of hibernating animals. And this suggests that prehistoric people struggled with cold winters by slowing down their metabolism and sleeping for months. As reported in their study by Juan-Luis Arsuaga and Antonis Barciokas, a scientist at the University of Democritus in Greece, who led the first excavations, their bones show that their growth is seasonally interrupted for a few months each year.
The winter sleep may have been the only solution to survive the harsh conditions for months in a cave.
The study authors explained. According to them, their theory is also supported by the fact that the remains of a cave bear were also found in the Sima cave, making it more plausible that prehistoric peoples did the same to survive the cold and lack of food than bears.
The authors also examined the arguments against their theory. Among them is that the Inuit and the Sami also live in cold and harsh conditions, but do not sleep in a winter sleep. Namely, because the fat of fatty fish and reindeer provides them with enough food even in winter. However, the drought in Iberia at that time could not provide enough high-fat food for those who lived in the cave of Sima in the cold winters, so they had no choice but to sleep in the cave during this period.
However, according to British experts cited by The Guardian, there may be other explanations for the lesions found in the fossilized bone remains, and the study authors’ theory is sure to provoke controversy. Chris Stringer, a scientist at the Natural History Museum in London, noted that large mammals, such as bears, don’t actually sleep in hibernation because they can’t lower their internal temperature enough. Instead, they fall into a shallow sleep called lethargy.
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