London: Early humans butchered their rivals, breaking open their skulls and bones to extract the marrow, a study has revealed.
According to a research presented at the Royal Society in London, the remains of a group of Neanderthals in northern Spain has been discovered which showed that they had been butchered and eaten by a group of local cannibals, the Independent reported.
A cache of bones, which was discovered deep inside the El Sidron cave system in 1994, have been analyzed for over 13 years and has revealed that they had been cracked open using tools.
The bones had been preserved for 51,000 years and have now been analysed using modern-day CSI forensic techniques.
According to reports, Carles Lalueza-Fox of the Institute of Evolutionary Biology in Barcelona said that the slaughtered group included three children aged from two to nine, three teenagers and six adults.
He added that the study has shown that they had been killed and eaten, with their bones and skulls split open to extract the marrow, tongue and brains.
The tools found at the site of the slaughter came from a few kilometres away suggest that their fellow early human attackers were probably also their neighbours.
