According to a new study, Neanderthals, who lived between 500,000 and 40,000 years ago, hunted giant elephants and butchered them for food. The straight-tusked elephants were the largest land mammals of the Ice Age. They were more than 4 metres tall and weighed 13 tons.
The research is based on the skeleton remains of a giant animal found in an old coal pit in Central Germany.
The Neanderthals were excellent hunters who knew where to find the elephants as well as the best way to attack them. They killed the animals with spears and sharp stone tools. It took many days and a whole group of people to carve out and preserve meat and fat from such a large elephant.
In most cases, they targeted male elephants because they roamed the land alone. They were also larger than females. Such a large elephant produced up to 5 tons of meat, food for a hundred people for a whole month.
