Grisly discovery: Bones reveal Neanderthal child was eaten by large bird

Well this is certainly interesting.

So this neanderthal child was eaten by a bird?

What kind of birds were around then that could eat a child? That would be pretty terrifying to have to watch out for giant bird attacks.

Tiny holes in the bones indicate that they passed through a large bird’s digestive system, according to Professor Pawel Valde-Nowak of the Jagiellonian University in Krakow. It’s not clear, however, whether the bird attacked and ate the young Neanderthal or scavenged the remains of a dead child.

www.foxnews.com...

a reply to: Vasa Croe

Probably one of those pesky Pelagornis, although I vote for rubber chicken.

a reply to: Vasa Croe

I am an admirer of birds. The albatross for example can have a wingspan of 11 feet here, today ... many birds are designed to be very skilled predators. I would love to know more about what potential species of bird would have done this.

RIP to the youthful neanderthal - may his death help us to learn more about history and our "cousin" the neanderthal

Thank you for sharing this.

a reply to: [post=23848708]Vasa Croe

Back in those days you had to be a helicopter parent or your child got eaten or scavenged or worst.

I have to be careful when Bubba our Pomeranian long-haired Chihuahua mix is in the backyard, I’ve seen Falcons swoop down at him.

a reply to: Vasa Croe

Maybe something like this: youtu.be...

a reply to: Vasa Croe

What kind of birds were around then that could eat a child? That would be pretty terrifying to have to watch out for giant bird attacks.

According to This the largest birds at the time were the Black Vulture and Griffon Vulture but as most birds at the time were scavengers it's likely the child was already dead when it was taken.

The Griffon Vulture.

What kind of birds were around then that could eat a child?

Some type of bird of prey ancestor.

A child getting eaten by one is a bad way to go.

a reply to: Vasa Croe

We eventually took revenge. We eat them now.

A new study suggests that prehistoric birds of prey made meals out of some of our earliest human ancestors. Researchers drew this conclusion after studying more than 600 bones from modern-day monkeys. They had collected the bones from beneath the nests of African crowned eagles in the Ivory Coast's Tai rainforest. A full-grown African crowned eagle is roughly the size of an American bald eagle, which typically weighs about 10 to 12 pounds.

www.sciencedaily.com...

The article doesn't say how young the child was.

I know there are legends around here that back when we had a good population of eagles (aka 1800s?), it wasn't rare to hear about a toddler in the yard being attacked by one, and some were said to have been taken.

Eagles are pretty darn big birds and they have a lot of power.

TheRedneck

a reply to: Vasa Croe

Raptors I surmise. Ospreys, Vultures, Eagles, Condors..all have been around awhile and can certainly grow large enough to carry off a child.

a reply to: Vasa Croe

I saw a bald eagle flying with a live cat it its claws. (I kick myself to this day for not getting that viral video)

What these big birds to is pick up prey, fly high and then drop them to their death.
Birds are freaking scary.

originally posted by: JAGStorm
a reply to: Vasa Croe

I saw a bald eagle flying with a live cat it its claws. (I kick myself to this day for not getting that viral video)

What these big birds to is pick up prey, fly high and then drop them to their death.
Birds are freaking scary.

Yeah...I watched a big hawk hit a squirrel one day when I was walking with one of my daughters. They hit hast and hard too.

There was no info on the age of the "child" as someone pointed out, i feel it's much more reasonable to think that maybe one or two fingers were taken, but nothing larger than that, OP almost makes it sound like there could have been a large enough bird to eat a whole kid or something.

I know true tale of an eagle snatching a baby in Arkansas.
I've witnessed a large hawk snatch a cat.
The dinosaurs are not extinct. They turned into birds.

Kalbarri, the spit
I saw a pelican fly off, head drooped low, from the sand.
Looked to me like its beak was very low and carrying something heavy
An elderly lady was calling her dog, Andre, Andre, come here
She called, panicky, louder, yelling, asking other people, have you seen my poodle, she described the dog,I had seen it, running along the beach, I had noticed the pelican near the dog
Anyway, I didnt say anything
Didn't really connect the dots till latter

Guessing the dog weighed between 5 to 10 kg
Pelican, they are bigger and stronger than you think

a reply to: Vasa Croe

Reminds me of the movie 10,000 BC:

a reply to: skunkape23

My 28lb weenie dog mix was almost carried off by an owl once. She hates being outside now amd spends her time looking up.

She had some gnarly scratches from the encounter.