When the World Was Young, and Human Cannibalism Wasn't Such a Big Deal

No dessert, caveman child, until you finish eating your human. Digging around in a Spanish cave called Gran Dolina, archaeologists have found butchered humans' fossilized bones. Researchers say the bones show that cave dwellers skinned, decapitated, and enjoyed other early humans, before throwing their remains into a heap with animals bones from other meals. The study, which appeared this month in Current Anthropology, says the 800,000-year-old Homo antecessor bones could indicate the most "ancient cultural cannibalism ... known until now." Adding to the nightmare: National Geographicreports thatthe hungry cavemen had a penchant for kids, since the 11 cannibalized humans uncovered were all youngsters. They speculate that the kiddos were easier to catch, and eating them was a good way to stop competitors from building their families. Study coauthor José María Bermúdez de Castro, of the National Research Center on Human Evolution, told National Geographic that marks near the base of ...