Neanderthals' Use of Bird Wings Speaks of Their Cognitive Abilities

Neanderthals exploited birds to use their feathers and claws as ornaments, finds a new study shedding light on never-heard before cognitive abilities of the hominins.

Researchers Clive Finlayson and Kimberly Brown from the Gibraltar Museum along with their colleagues analyzed data on 1,699 ancient fossil bird sites across Eurasia. When they observed the large number of bones belonging to birds from three sites in Gibraltar (Gorham's, Vanguard and Ibex Caves), they found evidence to a positive and strong association between the ancient humans, corvids and raptors, wherein the hominins were involved in the active process of removing wing feathers from the birds.

"The Neanderthals had cut through and marked the bones. But what were they cutting? We realised a lot of it was wing bones, particularly those holding large primary feathers," Finlayson told BBC News.

Based on the evidence, the experts revealed that the Neanderthals followed a systematic and geographical activity of cutting wing feathers over thousands of years in Gibraltar.  They also suggested that the hominins had more preferences for black feathers as the experts noticed bones of black color birds including magpies, jackdaws, vulture, kestrels and eagles, according to BBC.

Earlier studies on Neanderthals have showed some evidence that the hominins used birds as part of their varied diet system which includes marine mammals. However, the research team involved in the new study did not find any signs of using the birds for meat; instead they found that the Neanderthals have processed only wing bones that have low meat content.

Experts concluded that the ancient humans should have used the birds for their feathers and not for any other representation. While it is not clear as to why the Neanderthals used the feathers, experts suspected that the Neanderthals could have used it to show their power and status.

"Current uses of feathers typically involve the same species. If you think of the Plains Indians in North America, they put those feathers in headdresses and they are signalling. They are signalling power and status. Perhaps the Neanderthals were using feathers in the same way," co-author of the study Juan Jose Negro, director of the Donana Biological Station in Seville, Spain, told BBC.

 Neanderthals were said to have become extinct because of their inability to sustain against the intelligent modern humans. Absence of parietal art, bone and shell ornaments in the entire geographical space of the Palearctic were cited as evidence showing modern humans' superiority over the Neanderthals.

But the new study suggested that the Neanderthals' practice of using feathers was widespread geographically and was followed even before the arrival of modern humans for several years. This showed that the ancient humans thought in different ways to express themselves in media than just cave walls, thus putting doubt on the debate that modern humans are superior.

The findings of the study are published in the PLOS ONE journal.