Late Pleistocene Eemian hyena and steppe lion feeding strategies on their largest prey—Palaeoloxodon antiquus Falconer and Cautley 1845 at the straight-tusked elephant graveyard and Neanderthal site Neumark-Nord Lake 1, Central Germany

The scavenging activities of hyenas and lions at the Neumark-Nord Lake 1 (Central Germany) site on straight tusk elephant carcasses is commonly documented by slight bone damages and initial skeleton partitioning. Canine bite marks are found at several joints of elephant long bones, as well as on the vertebrae and skulls. Deep bite and scratch marks from 5 to 7 mm in width made by large carnivore canine teeth (Panthera leo spelaea, Crocuta crocuta spelaea) on the ventral vertebral columns and pelvises of two Palaeoloxodon antiquus straight-tusked elephant skeletons suggest that the intestines and inner organs were consumed by both large lion/hyena predators as is commonly observed when modern African lions and spotted hyenas feed on contemporary elephant carcasses. A scavenging strategy can be demonstrated using 24 partly preserved Palaeoloxodon skeletons, where Ice Age spotted hyenas appear to be the main scavenger (95 %) and sole skeleton decompositor such as bone destructor. While Crocuta may feed anywhere on an elephant carcass, they are known to specialize to eat the complete feet, whereas scavenging from the anus into the body cavity (intestine/internal organ feeding) is more typical of lions. Shallow water at Neumark-Nord Lake 1 prevented hyenas from completely scavenging elephants; thus, bone damage at this site was constrained to initial stages of destruction and final carcass partitioning by high water stands and floods.     

Late Pleistocene Crocuta crocuta spelaea (Goldfuss, 1823) clans as prezewalski horse hunters and woolly rhinoceros scavengers at the open air commuting den and contemporary Neanderthal camp site Westeregeln (central Germany)

Late Pleistocene Ice Age Crocuta crocuta spelaea ( Goldfuss, 1823) hyenas from the open-air gypsum karst site Westeregeln (Saxony-Anhalt, central Germany) is dated into the early to middle Late Pleistocene. Hyena clans apparently used the karst for food storage and as “commuting den”, where typical high amounts (15% of the NISP) of hyena remains appear, also faecal pellets in concentrations for den marking purposes. Additionally small carnivores Meles, Vulpes and Mustela appear to have used some cavities as dens. Several hundreds of lowland “mammoth steppe fauna” bones (NISP = 572) must have been accumulated primarily by hyenas, and not by Neanderthals at the contemporary hyena/human camp site. Abundant caballoid horse remains of “E. germanicus Nehring, (1884)” are revised by the holotype and original material to the small E. c. przewalskii horse. Woolly rhinoceros Coelodonta antiquitatis remains are also abundant, and were left in several cases with typical hyena scavenging damages. Rangifer tarandus (11%) is mainly represented by numerous fragments of shed female antlers that were apparently gathered by humans, and antler bases from male animals that were collected and chewed in few cases (only large male antlers) by hyenas. The large quantities of small reindeer antlers must have been the result of collection by humans; their stratigraphic context is unclear but such large quantities most probably resulted from schamanic activities. The hyena site overlaps with a Middle Palaeolithic Neanderthal camp, as well as possibly with a later human Magdalénian site.     

Discoveries of Neolithic prehistoric sites at Pleistocene carbonate rock shelters on the east coast of the UAE

Three newly discovered prehistoric sites on the east coast of the United Emirates (UAE) are described. All are located on surfaces of Pleistocene carbonates or rock shelters that are generally rare along the eastern coast of the Gulf of Oman. Aqqah 1 (Le Meridien al Aqqah Beach Resort), the most important and best preserved of these sites, is a partially collapsed rock shelter with an exposed section, lithic finds and marine molluscs. Deriving an exact date from the material present is difficult because of a lack of comparanda. A bifacial fletched arrowhead made of yellow jasper and the lithic debris of five different raw materials as well as an undecorated ceramic fragment might suggest a date in the Late Neolithic or Early Bronze Age. The presence of many marine bivalves and snails with operculae, which differ from recent coastal species, indicates the collection and consumption of living molluscs by the prehistoric population of Aqqah. Nearby burials may be related to the rock shelters.