image: This is an excavation of a footprint layer on the archeological site from Le Rozel. view more
Credit: Image courtesy of Dominique Cliquet
A study of 80,000-year-old footprints in Normandy, France offers a glimpse into the social structure of Neandertals. Fossil footprints represent a snapshot in time because they are preserved only when rapidly buried. Jérémy Duveau and colleagues analyzed hundreds of 80,000-year-old fossilized hominin footprints in Normandy, France to provide a glimpse into the social structure of Neandertals. The 257 footprints analyzed at the Le Rozel site lie in a coastal creek bed and were likely preserved by wind-driven sand when the area was part of a dune system. Though the authors did not find hominin bones at the site, they uncovered stone tools of similar age and characteristics to those found at other European Neandertal sites. The authors note that the prints are consistent with known Neandertal foot morphology and underscore that Neandertals would have been the only hominin in Western Europe at the time. Analysis of the length and width of the prints suggested that most of the prints belonged to adolescents and children, with the youngest estimated to be 2 years of age. According to the authors, the footprints provide an unusual window into Neandertal group size and composition.
Article #19-01789: “The composition of a Neandertal social group revealed by the hominin footprints at Le Rozel (Normandy, France),” by Jérémy Duveau, Gilles Berillon, Christine Verna, Gilles Laisné, and Dominique Cliquet
MEDIA CONTACT: Jérémy Duveau, Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Paris, FRANCE; tel: +33-144057344; e-mail: jeremy.duveau@edu.mnhn.fr
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Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences