The now - extinct cave bear had a lot to contend with back in the daytime . Not only were there the bitter coldness of theLate Pleistocene era(126,000 to 11,700 years ago),climate - modification - induce intellectual nourishment famine , and the occasionalcave lion attackbut bands of Neanderthals would regularly still-hunt sleeping bear as they awoke from their yearly slumber .
According to a paper late published in theJournal of Archaeological Science , the bear were point by the ancient hominins for their pelts , pith , and living quarters .
Marco Peresani at the University of Ferrara in Italy and his team analyzed over 1,700 bear bones witness in the Rio Secco and Fomane caves in Northern Italy . Some belonged to thebrown bear(Ursus arctos ) , a species that continues to ramble much of Europe today , but the volume get along from cave bears ( Ursus spelaeus ) .
Many of the off-white reveal snub marks and lying next to the remains were hundreds of gemstone tools .
“ These cave bears were run and butcher by Neanderthals , ” Peresani toldNew Scientist , who tote up it was potential attacks happened in the spring when they were at their most vulnerable , just after the bear ' hibernation period and when female bears gave parturition .
Among the fossils are remain belonging to adults , cubs , and fetuses . There are penis bones , showing that Neanderthals did on occasion hunting down virile bear but the researcher believe females were their main targets . Not only were still - massive female half the size of male bears , they would have been weak after hibernation and giving parturition .
Male cave bear were monumental , averaging at 680 kilo ( 1,500 British pound ) . To put that into linear perspective , that is roughly 50 percent more than a innovative - daylight grizzly ( picture ) . Dennis W Donohue / Shutterstock
concord to Peresani , the Neanderthal hunter were in all likelihood after the bear ' pelts . However , they clear made the most of their kill – snack marks matching Neanderthal tooth have been spotted on some of the bones . Other fossils show polarity of bashing , perchance a Neanderthal technique for extracting bone marrow .
It is also probable they used the then - empty caves as lodgings post - ambush , Peresani says , sometimes for months at a time .
Ultimately , the cave comport population of Europe were able to weather the attacks . In the end , it was n’t the Neanderthals ( or even theHomo sapiens ) that led the cave deport to extinction butglobal thawing .
The coinage died out around 27,800 year ago during the Last Glacial Maximum , when changes in temperature sternly limited their food supply . They were one of the first mega - mammals to conk out – shortly followed by thewoolly mammothand thecave lion .
