Ancient Humans Were Able to Compete With Giant Hyenas for Carcasses: Study

Prehistoric humans may have been capable of competing with giant hyenas for carcasses abandoned by saber-toothed cats and jaguars hundreds of thousands of years ago.

A study published in the journal Scientific Reports provides new insights into the debate on the role that scavenging played for early hominins, the group that includes modern humans and our extinct relatives.

Some previous research has hypothesized that the number of carcasses abandoned by saber-toothed cats may have been able to sustain early hominin populations in southern Europe. But it has remained unclear whether other large scavengers, such as giant hyenas, would have limited the access of hominins to these carcasses.

For the study, a team of researchers ran computer simulations to model scenarios in which hominins were competing for carrion with giant hyenas in southern Europe around 1.2-0.8 million years ago.

The researchers simulated whether the extinct saber-toothed cat species Homotherium latidens and Megantereon whitei and the European jaguar (Panthera gombaszoegensis) could have left behind enough carrion to support hyena and hominin populations.

While the consumption of animals played an important role in the diet of early hominins, whether these humans obtained such food by scavenging or hunting large mammals remains debated.

"There is an unsolved debate among archaeologists about the role of scavenging as a relevant food procurement strategy for early humans. Most of the debate is based on the interpretation of the scarce and fragmentary evidence provided by the archaeological record," Jesús Rodríguez, an author of the study with the National Research Center On Human Evolution (CENIEH) in Spain, told Newsweek.

"Without denying that the archaeological evidence should be considered the strongest argument to solve the question, our intention was to provide elements to the debate from a different perspective. Our focus was on the viability of scavenging by early humans from an ecological point of view, considering the predators and competitors present in the environment at that time."

Most of the debate so far has focused on Africa. The aim of the study was to look at the situation in the Iberian Peninsula—a stretch of land in southwestern Europe that is today divided primarily between Spain and Portugal—toward the end of the Early Pleistocene period (around 2.6 million to 0.8 million years ago). The end of this period witnessed the arrival of hominins from Africa into Europe.

"Since it is not possible to replicate the past ecosystems in the real world, we simulated the behavior of the predators, the hominins and their competitors in the computer. Certainly, computer simulations cannot prove that something occurred, but they may be used to show that something was not possible or that it was possible under certain conditions," Rodríguez said.

The simulations that the researchers ran included the extinct giant hyena (Pachycrocuta brevirostris). This species was the largest member of the hyena family ever to exist.

It was larger than modern spotted hyenas, standing more than 3 feet tall and weighing 220 pounds or more. This hyena had a short face, as well as very robust jaws and teeth, making it a very effective bone-cracker.

"As you may wonder, a carnivore of that size would be a formidable enemy for a single hominin. However, a group of hominins could chase away a hyena by throwing stones and performing an aggressive display," Rodríguez said.

"The main advantage of hominins was their sociality and their ability to cooperate to chase away hyenas and other competitors. Maybe they took advantage of their high learning capabilities to predict where was more likely to find carrion, but this is speculative."

Running the simulations demonstrated that maintaining an optimum group size was essential for the success of the hominin scavenging strategy. They would have been most successful at scavenging carcasses in moderately sized groups, according to the simulations.

These groups may have been able to regularly obtain food by scavenging, even in competition with giant hyenas, if they were large enough to chase away these animals. However, if the groups were too large, they would not be satiated by a single carcass and would have to expend energy in search of additional resources.

"We show that the resources were enough to sustain populations of hyenas and hominins competing for carrion and that hominins were able to successfully coexist with hyenas competing with them for carrion," Rodríguez said.

The results of the study support the claim that saber-toothed cats abandoned carcasses containing a large amount of edible food, according to the researchers. The authors speculate that the scavenged remains may have been an important source of meat and fat for hominins, particularly in winter when plant resources were scarce.