Uncommon Descent Serving The Intelligent Design Community

So Neanderthals are now “cunning”? Because they killed … pigeons?

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Gosh, we thought they’d earn that rep for killing the two-step snake.

From (where else?) New Scientist, we learn:

Neanderthals had the brains and guile to catch and eat birds, a skill many had assumed was beyond them. Bones found in Gibraltar suggest Neanderthals hunted wild pigeons, possibly by climbing steep cliffs to reach their nests.

“Neanderthals were seen as too brutish to catch fast prey,” says Clive Finlayson of the Gibraltar Museum. He and his colleagues studied 1724 bones of rock doves, the wild ancestors of domestic pigeons, from Gorham’s Cave in Gibraltar, a trove of Neanderthal relics.

In other words, Neanderthals raided mass nests. In later times, all humans (probably including Neanderthals) simply transported the birds and nests to hen coops. Saved a long climb.

Birds don’t seem to care. Actually, they like it, because humans dispense food and water freely, and drive off hostile canines.

If you are a hen bird, you have what ambitions exactly that interfere with that?

Re our Neanderthal ancestors, see also:

Neanderthal Man: The long-lost relative turns up again, this time with documents and

A deep and abiding need for Neanderthals to be stupid. Why?

Comments
Neanderthal Population Data Raises Doubt about Human-Neanderthal Interbreeding http://www.reasons.org/articles/neanderthal-population-data-raises-doubt-about-human-neanderthal-interbreedingDionisio
August 17, 2014
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Um, pillaging nesting sites requires neither brains nor guile (nor quickness). The stupid birds are just sitting there, unable to fly. The fact that our Neander-buddies could locate a nesting site and identify it as FOOD just means that they were HUNGRY. Collecting eggs and chicks from rookeries around Britain continued well into the 20th Century. And there are undoubtedly many islands where this still continues.mahuna
August 10, 2014
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