Level 1 - Absolute Beginner
Scientists found old bones in a cave in Spain. The cave is called Abauntz. The bones are from a hand.
The hand is about 46,000 years old. It belonged to a Neanderthal man. Neanderthals were early humans.
The bones still had DNA inside. DNA tells us about a person. It showed the man was male.
Scientists also found stone tools and animal bones in the same place. This helps us learn how these people lived.
- cave
- a large hole in a hill or mountain
- bone
- a hard part inside the body
- hand
- the part of the body at the end of your arm
- old
- from a long time ago
- DNA
- a code inside living things
- tool
- something you use to do a job
- scientist
- a person who studies nature
- male
- a boy or a man
Level 2 - Elementary
Researchers have announced that hand bones found in Abauntz Cave, in Navarre in northern Spain, belong to a Neanderthal who lived about 46,000 years ago. The find was presented on 19 October.
The bones include three long hand bones and a middle finger bone, and two more fragments were shown to be human by studying proteins. The bones kept enough collagen to give scientists DNA and an exact radiocarbon date.
The tests show the person was a male Neanderthal. Marks on the bones show that animals chewed them after his death. Stone tools and cut animal bones were found in the same layer of the cave.
Experts say this is the first direct proof of Neanderthals in the western Pyrenees. The full genetic results are not yet published, so scientists still have many questions.
- researcher
- a person who does careful study
- Neanderthal
- an early human who lived in Europe and Asia
- protein
- a natural substance in living things
- collagen
- a protein found in bones
- radiocarbon date
- an age found by measuring carbon
- layer
- a level of material, one above another
- proof
- evidence that something is true
- published
- made public in a report
Level 3 - Intermediate
A set of hand bones from Abauntz Cave in Navarre, northern Spain, has been identified as belonging to a male Neanderthal who lived roughly 46,000 years ago. The discovery was presented on 19 October at an event led by Navarre's regional president, María Chivite.
Coverage describes three metacarpals and a middle finger bone from the right hand, plus two further fragments identified as human by protein analysis, though sources differ slightly on the exact count. Because the bones retain well preserved collagen, researchers could combine ancient DNA, protein analysis and direct radiocarbon dating to establish the individual's identity, sex and approximate age.
Tooth marks and other damage show that animals gnawed the remains after death, which offers clues about how they ended up in the cave. Stone tools and butchered animal bones were found in the same layer, suggesting people used the site repeatedly.
The team calls it the first direct evidence of Neanderthals in the western Pyrenees, a corridor between Iberia and the rest of Europe. Caution is warranted: the complete genetic results have not yet been published, and one earlier paper dated a different level of the cave to more than 46,900 years, so the precise context remains to be clarified.
- metacarpal
- one of the long bones in the palm of the hand
- ancient DNA
- genetic material recovered from very old remains
- retain
- to keep
- gnaw
- to bite repeatedly
- butchered
- cut up for meat
- corridor
- a narrow route linking two areas
- warranted
- justified
- context
- the circumstances in which something is found
Level 4 - Advanced
Fragments of a hand recovered from Abauntz Cave in Navarre have been attributed to a male Neanderthal who died some 46,000 years ago, a find unveiled on 19 October at an event led by the regional president, María Chivite. Four fragments are generally reported to come from a single adult's right hand, among them three metacarpals and a middle phalanx, while two others were identified as human through proteomic analysis; accounts differ on the precise tally.
What makes the material remarkable is its biochemical preservation. Collagen survived well enough to yield ancient DNA and a direct radiocarbon date, so researchers did not have to infer the age from the surrounding sediments. Genetic work confirmed the individual's sex, and taphonomic traces show that carnivores or scavengers modified the bones after death, which bears on how a disarticulated hand came to rest in a cave also littered with stone tools and cut marked animal bones.
The team presents the discovery as the first direct evidence of Neanderthals in the western Pyrenees, a corridor linking Iberia to the continent. That framing deserves some restraint. The full genomic results have yet to appear in print, and an earlier publication dated one of the cave's levels to beyond 46,900 years, leaving unresolved whether these bones derive from that horizon.
Until the data are published and scrutinised, Abauntz is best read less as a finished biography than as a promising doorway into the final chapters of Neanderthal presence in southwestern Europe.
- attributed
- said to belong to or be caused by
- phalanx
- a bone of a finger or toe
- proteomic
- relating to the study of proteins
- sediment
- material that settles to form layers of ground
- taphonomic
- relating to what happens to remains after death
- disarticulated
- separated at the joints
- horizon
- a distinct layer in an excavation
- scrutinised
- examined very carefully
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