Neanderthals changed hunting strategy with climate change

Researchers report paleoenvironmental influence on Neanderthal hunting from Amud Cave, Israel 

A view of Amud Cave from below. Wikimedia Commons

Neanderthals occupying the Amud Cave in what is today northern Israel showed exploitation of different hunting territories depending upon the climate in which they lived, suggests researchers in a recent study.

Gideon Hartman of the University of Connecticut and colleagues from an international group of universities and research institutions came to this conclusion by reconstructing the hunting ranges of Neanderthals who occupied the cave at two distinct Ice Age occupational phases separated by about 10,000 years. The first phase occurred during Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 4 (71,000 – 129,000 years ago), and the second occurred during Marine Isotope Stage 3 (57,000 – 70,000 years ago). They analyzed the comparison of oxygen, carbon, and strontium isotope samples from the tooth enamel of excavated gazelle remains with modern isotope data from the Amud Cave region. [...] popular-archaeology.com

Reference: Gideon Hartman, et al., Isotopic evidence for Last Glacial climatic impacts on Neanderthal gazelle hunting territories at Amud Cave, Israel, Journal of Human Evolution, 7 May 2015 doi:10.1016/j.jhevol.2015.03.008