ArticleScientific reports2023
First direct evidence of lion hunting and the early use of a lion pelt by Neanderthals.
Article in Scientific reports, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 5 papers.
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5 citing papers in PubMed.
- Opaque Social Instruments: A Cultural Evolutionary Approach to Pleistocene Symbolic Artifacts.Evolutionary anthropology · 2026Article
- Faunal exploitation at the elephant hunting site of Lehringen, Germany, 125,000 years ago.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Article
- Earliest evidence of Neanderthal multifunctional bone tool production from cave lion (Panthera spelaea) remains.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Identification and quantification of projectile impact marks on bone: new experimental insights using osseous points.Archaeological and anthropological sciences · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
10 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
During the Upper Paleolithic, lions become an important theme in Paleolithic art and are more frequent in anthropogenic faunal assemblages. However, the relationship between hominins and lions in earlier periods is poorly known and primarily interpreted as interspecies competition. Here we present new evidence for Neanderthal-cave lion interactions during the Middle Paleolithic. We report new evidence of hunting lesions on the 48,000 old cave lion skeleton found at Siegsdorf (Germany) that attest to the earliest direct instance of a large predator kill in human history. A comparative analysis of a partial puncture to a rib suggests that the fatal stab was delivered with a wooden thrusting spear. We also present the discovery of distal lion phalanges at least 190,000 old from Einhornhöhle (Germany), representing the earliest example of the use of cave lion skin by Neanderthals in Central Europe. Our study provides novel evidence on a new dimension of Neanderthal behavioral complexity.
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