Neanderthals did not disappear because modern humans were better hunters and thus out-competed them for resources, according to U.S. and Israeli anthropologists. On the contrary, they were top predators who knew how to hunt the biggest and fastest of the animals. Neanderthals went extinct about 30,000 years ago, after having inhabited Europe and parts of Asia for roughly 200,000 years. The reason for their demise has been long debated and frequently attributed to modern humans' greater intelligence and consequently greater hunting skills. However, evidence from animal remains hunted by Neanderthals clearly indicates that these hominids were as good as any early modern humans at hunting, Daniel Adler, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, and colleagues report in the February issue of the journal Current Anthropology. The researchers examined abundant faunal remains, in particular thousands of bones belonging to a mountain goat species called the Caucasian tur that still exists today.

The trove was excavated at Ortvale Klde, a rock shelter in the southern Caucasus in the Republic of Georgia dated to 60,000-20,000 years ago.

There was no doubt that the animals were hunted and killed. Indeed, the bones featured cut marks from human butchering and fragmentations typical of marrow consumption, showing that meat processing behaviors were not significantly different between Neanderthals and modern humans.

"Given the abundance of animals, one might think that Neanderthals would kill as many animals as possible, regardless of age, and therefore nutritional returns," Adler told Discovery News.

But analysis of tooth wear revealed that two-thirds of the animals were animals of prime age, the strongest, fastest, most nutritious and most difficult to capture members of the herd.

"Neanderthals, like the modern humans that followed them, were quite savvy, choosing instead to maximize their dietary intake per energy expended by hunting prime age adults.

"Given the species involved and the rough terrain, this would require sophisticated hunting tactics, (and) knowledge of animal behavior, in particular migration routes and flight behavior, and group cooperation," Adler said.

Neanderthals timed their hunts for late fall to early spring, during the Caucasian tur's seasonal migration to lower elevations, where the site of Ortvale Klde is located.

"They maintained an intimate relationship with their environment and were capable of understanding exactly where and when particular resources could be found in abundance," Adler said.

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