Neanderthal child eaten by bird

[DavidBrown]

A Neanderthal child was eaten by a bird in Poland 115,000 years ago.

The identity of the bird is not known.

You Thought Modern Life Was Bad. This Neanderthal Child Was Eaten By a Giant Bird | Smart News | Smithsonian

 

[Terry Thomas]

I would think that many of todays human children have also been consumed by a variety of birds? What is new?

 

[Batto]

many of todays human children have also been consumed by a variety of birds?

How do you quantify "many"?
In the case of the Neanderthal child, the scavanging option (vultures, eagles, ravens etc.) imho appears to be more likely.

 

[Terry Thomas]

I would think that a large number of both adults and children have been killed, or died from various diseases, especially on such continents as Africa, Asia and South America. Many would have not been buried, and so consumed by a variety of scavengers, including various species of birds. As this has been happening for thousands of years, over much of the world, then the numbers would have to be quite large! The predators and scavengers did not stop eating people with the passing of the Neanderthals. Bit obvious I think?

 

[Batto]

Bit obvious I think?

On the contrary. [This must be one of the most macabre discussions I've ever led on ZC.]
Archaelogical findings indicate that both Neanderthals and modern humans early on buried their dead in ways that were meant to keep scavangers away - with the exception of societies whose religions promoted the display of corpses to vultures and other scavangers. Given that all over history and culture the death of a child is a serious emotionally devastating event for most parents and social groups, I'm pretty sure that the great majority of dead children, starting back from the pleistocene to our current part of the holocene (with its massive global human overpopulation) have not been left in the open to be scavanged on by birds, as you insinuate.

 

[Terry Thomas]

Certainly an unusual subject, but interesting.
Battlefields, murder victims and accidental deaths would account for lots of lots of juicy morsels. Did'nt the Native North American Indian tribes leave their dead on raised platforms; also Indians left corpses for the vultures etc., to finish off? Probably several other groups had similar practices.
I do agree that most societies would have buried their deceased loved/respected ones.
Many thousands of people were slaughtered by E.G. Roman armies, and Alexander's campiagns etc., etc., including non military people, men, women and children, and few of these enemies would have been buried, leaving behind lots of good tucker for scavengers!

 

[Batto]

Did'nt the Native North American Indian tribes leave their dead on raised platforms; also Indians left corpses for the vultures etc., to finish off?

That's why I wrote

(...) with the exception of societies whose religions promoted the display of corpses to vultures and other scavangers.

Sky burials are still practised in various parts of Asia.
Sky burial - Wikipedia

Archaeological evidence indicates that even the victims of said ancient warfare and mass murder were often buried afterwards.

 

[gentle lemur]

Interesting, but no surprise. Many birds are opportunist scavengers. I think the culprit might well be a corvid, but gulls will eat almost anything and the turnstone (or ruddy turnstone in the USA) is even less discriminating. However I don't think a turnstone could be involved in this case in spite of their macabre fondness for tideline corpses.

 

[TeaLovingDave]

Of course, if one wants to discuss active predation of human children by birds, one need look no further than the case of the Taung Child - which is, for anyone unaware, the fossilised skull of a young Australopithecus africanus dating back 2.3 million years which bears signs (talon marks in the face and orbits, and depressed cranial fractures) that the individual concerned was killed by an eagle or similar species.

 

[Carl Jones]

The Crowned Eagle in Africa is a potential predator of small children. Peter Steyn in his book on Birds of Prey of Southern Africa (1982), notes the finding, by the artist D. M. Henry, of part of a skull from a young African in a Crowned Eagle's nest, and he also records a Crowned Eagle that attacked a 20kg seven year old boy, but the boy escaped, after a peasant woman killed the eagle with a hoe. I have also been told of a more recent case where a female Crowned Eagle in Kenya killed a child.