Did you read the title of the story and was curious to know what a sinister thing is this prehistoric hyena devouring the face of a Neanderthal? This is what some researchers have concluded who examined teeth that were found in an archaeological site known as Marillac, located in France. But let us explain this chat right!

Tooth confusion

According to Laura Geggel of Live Science, the teeth were not found now, but during excavations carried out from 1965 to 1980. During this period, a huge amount of bones - including animals such as reindeer, horses and bison - were recovered inside. from a cave that exists on the site, including Neanderthal bones.

These are the teeth (Live Science / G. Delvider / UMR PACEA CNRS / Pradelles excavation team)

The teeth we talked about were in this cake and for years were identified as being from some unknown animal. But the specimens were re-examined and this new analysis revealed that instead of being animal teeth, they belonged to a Neanderthal man whose face was devoured by a hungry carnivore.

The confusion in identification occurred because the teeth were partially digested and regurgitated by the beast and therefore their structure was altered during this process. Regarding how this carnivore-Neanderthal encounter happened, scientists also have a theory of how it all happened.

Little snack

According to Laura, because of the amount and variety of bones found in Marillac, scientists believe the place used to be a kind of camp where Neanderthals gathered during hunts to cut, separate and even taste meat from slaughtered animals. A strong evidence that Marillac was frequented for this purpose is that many of the bones have cut marks and other signs.

(Filthy Monkey Men)

In the middle of the mountain of bones that were found in Marillac (reindeer alone, there were more than 17, 000!), Neanderthal bones were identified - also containing cut marks, indicating that a cannibalism was possibly rolling during camp "churras". In fact, joking aside, scientists can't tell if the consumption of the flesh of their mates really happened, and whether the treatment of their bodies was not part of any funeral ritual.

Finally, at the same time as Neanderthals used the hunting grounds, the cave hyenas ( Crocuta crocuta spelaea ) - an extinct species that was larger and more corpulent than today's hyenas - was prowling around. region and was among the most dangerous carnivores for our former "cousins".

Cave Hyena (Wikimedia Commons / PierreSelim)

Scientists who discovered that the cave hyena's teeth regurgitated were from a Neanderthal believe that the hyena was probably dead when its face was attacked by the beast, and it is possible that the animal found its jaw to gnaw. Well, hopefully this is what really happened, right? Poor guy if he was still alive when the carnivore appeared!

It turns out that the teeth, although basically bones, are much tougher than the jaw. So what seems to have happened is that the hyena gnawed and gnawed, swallowed everything, digested only a portion of the snack, and threw up the Neanderthal "hominy" - which was discovered thousands of years later, caused the greatest confusion and led a team of scientists retracing this whole story.