The Neanderthals who resided in the Prado Vargas cave, located in Merindad de Sotoscueva (Burgos), were the first collectors in historyby storing fossils of marine origin 46,000 years ago in this site of the karstic complex of the Ojo Guareña Natural Monument. A study published in the journal Quaternary demonstrates that a species other than Homo sapiens was capable of creating the first collection of fossils. Specifically, Cretaceous marine fossils that the Neanderthals moved inside the cavity, where they had their camp, the research team reported in a press release.
The scientific article has been coordinated by the professor at the University of Burgos Marta Navazo, in collaboration with researchers from the academic institution, the National Research Center on Human Evolution (CENIEH), the University of Malaga and the Museum of Human Evolution . The work has consisted of analyze the fifteen marine fossils which since 2016 have been discovered in the systematic excavation of level 4 of the site, which dates back to 46,000 years.
The taxonomic study of the fossils has resulted in all of them They belong to the phylum of mollusks (Mollusca), except one of them, which corresponds to the phylum in which sea urchins are included (Echinodermata). Of the mollusks, half belong to the class of bivalves (Bivalvia) and the other half to that of gastropods (Gastropoda), and within the gastropods the best represented family with six specimens is that of the tylostoma (Tylostomatidae).
Tylostomas are fossils that belong to the same class as the current snails and which can reach 10 cm, they have a holostomed shell, with several whorls, the last of which is larger. The tylostoma fossils found in the Prado Vargas cave were snails that lived on the shallow seabed surface millions of years ago, whose formation occurred during the Upper Cretaceous, between 100 and 66 million years ago. That is to say, many millions of years before of the appearance of the first hominins.
The Neanderthals of the Prado Vargas cave, in their continuous journeys through the territory in search of food, woods to make their javelins or flint to carve their tools, they located several deposits where these fossils emerge. They collected them and moved them to the cave, between two and four kilometers away from the fossil outcrops.
Symbolic and not practical end
The research team has proposed different hypotheses to explain this behavior, since except in one of the cases, None of the fossils found have stigmas indicating that it was used as a striker to make stone tools, which points to a more symbolic meaning.
Thus, researchers propose from collecting for aesthetic reasons to another that sought to use fossils to exchange them within the group or with other groups of Neanderthals; They could also have been play elements in the camp itself, or collected to reinforce cultural identity as an element of social cohesion. Furthermore, the study raises the possibility that the collection the children of the group could do itsince collecting is a characteristic practice of childhood among hominids.
Regardless of the objective, the study makes it clear that, although the Neanderthals of Prado Vargas could have found the fossils intentionally or by chance, His transportation to the cave was deliberatesystematic and repetitive. This confirms his drive and interest in collecting these fossils. In this way, the Neanderthals from this Burgos cave have become, to this day, the first fossil collectors of our evolutionary process.
#Neanderthals #Prado #Vargas #cave #collectors #history
