How did our Neanderthal relatives survive Europe’s brutal Ice Age winters? Here’s an idea I’d never heard before: they hibernated. Their bones tell the tale.
A cache of bones from Spain shows “evidence of hyperparathyroidism” and “pathognomonic lesions“. Or, in more colloquial terms, ‘rotten fence post’ bones.
Hibernation wasn’t good for them. They seem to have been only partly adapted to the annual assault on their bodies and probably woke from time to time during the winter. (You think Monday mornings are tough!) But the alternative to diseased bones and kidneys was starvation. Unlike modern-era Inuits, who have access to fat-rich marine animals all winter, our desperate cousins had a poor winter environment.
The aridification of Iberia then could not have provided enough fat-rich food for the people of Sima during the harsh winter. theguardian
We say that large mammals like bears “hibernate” but a more accurate word is “torpor.” Apparently, there is a primate species, the fat-tailed lemur, that enters a winter torpor. I didn’t know that either, but lots of sources confirm the fact. (Here’s one.)
I can’t imagine what Neanderthals experienced, awaking hungry and sick… having to return to sleep if weather outside the cave looked dismal. Spring foraging better have been easy. Is the seed of the ability to enter torpor inside you and me? Maybe someday this science-fiction-sounding ability will be tapped. In the meantime, research can continue:
“The idea is a fascinating one that could be tested by examining the genomes of the Sima people, Neanderthals and Denisovans for signs of genetic changes linked with the physiology of torpor.” Chris Stringer of the Natural History Museum in London
Kate's Science - Real and Fantastic 