New Evidence Suggests Neanderthals Cannibalized Outsider Women and Children

Anthropologists have spent centuries piecing together the story of human history. For every fascinating detail they unearth, there are others that are rather, uh, unsavory. A new analysis of human bone fragments paints a particularly gruesome picture of our Neanderthal cousins.

The study, published November 19 in the journal Nature Scientific Reports , suggests that these remains belonged to six women and children who were slaughtered, butchered, and cannibalized by other Neanderthals. The bone fragments were found inside the Goyet cave system in modern-day Belgium, and they appear to be between 41,000 and 45,000 years old.

The findings point to targeted predatory behavior toward slender, short-statured females and children from other Neanderthal groups, according to the researchers.