Link to the journal article - Taphonomy of an excavated striped hyena (Hyaena hyaena) den in Arabia: implications for paleoecology and prehistory - which includes additional text, photos and maps:
Perhaps not as ostentatiously interesting, but it's in an area (Saudi Arabia) where there's not a lot of animal remains at all.
> “The most surprising thing comes down to just how well preserved the material is, and how much material there is, given that in Saudi we have no faunal remains, really,” Stewart tells Gizmodo.
From that perspective it's quite interesting, a data point in the middle of nowhere.
> Hyenas Hoarded Thousands of Human, Animal Bones in Saudi Arabian Lava Tube
I'll admit I thought, what's that one person? But it is at least 10
Parrot 13 - 25
T. rex probably ~200 bones
Human Adult - 206
Mouse - 255
Human baby - ~300
Dog - 319
Elephant - 326–351
Blue Whale - 356
Snake 300-400, 1800 python
If you ever what to see how hard knowledge-based systems are, try and do something simple like how many bones in X. It explodes into what is a bone, we don't know, what age, is the animal docked, new theory 'we found a unknown bone'
"Impossible to confirm"? No. It's wrong. You googled "how many bones does a parrot have" and copied the first answer, which was wrong. This isn't some kind of scientific mystery. 13 is just not a reasonable number.
The origin of "13-25" is interesting - it seems to be a commonly cited range for how many neck vertebrae birds in general have. This is the kind of category error that Google's "answer engine" is notorious for. I wonder if the author of that wrong top Google result also got it from Google...
In humans, more than a quarter of the bones are in the foot.
The number of foot bones in humans is not consistent. Some people have more, others have less.
My podiatrist told me this.
When I asked him about the foot bones of other mammals, such as dogs and cows, he said “Whoooah!!!”. The conversation became animated. He could hardly contain himself.
So you know, with the 1900 bones in their sample, they could conclusively identify ~40 individual animals, mostly equine. There were two human skull fragments.
We edited the title to make it less baity, but the word "hoarded" seems to imply the same thing so I'm not sure the edited title is adding that nuance?
I think 'hoard' is fine to describe the behaviour without any sort of undue personification. If you really wanted to change it though, the lead guy is quoted as calling them 'avid accumulators' a couple of paragraphs in. (Or 'amassed', 'stashed', 'stowed'; 'collected' and 'stowed' are, to me, more personifying than 'hoarded'.)
My dog bringa all of her bones to the same place in the yard, her safe spot. When she has devoured the marrow, she typically leaves the bone remnants behind.
Yeah, I'd imagine. I'd think it depends what kind, but for anyone who hasn't seen a hyena in person: they are _formidable_. They're way bigger than I'd thought, they look damn solid and their jaws are terrifying.
normally in the movie this is the moment of the big reveal when you figure out the characters you thought were really good have been killing for a long time and they probably have plans for you that you wouldn't like.
Fascinating as it looks like kind of sacret place, and social behaviors of early humans didn't differ that much from other wildlife dwellers. Perhaps one could anchor origin of some religions from this behavior? ie. consumption, hoarding, community, continuity.
That reminds me of the doglike creature in pre-islamic arabian legends, the Ghoul.
Living in hideouts under Graveyards gnawing the flesh and bones of the dead.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghoul
...
A fun social phenomenon of Hyena and Man as an aside:
38 comments
[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 80.1 ms ] threadhttps://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12520-021-01365-6
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rising_Star_Cave
> “The most surprising thing comes down to just how well preserved the material is, and how much material there is, given that in Saudi we have no faunal remains, really,” Stewart tells Gizmodo.
From that perspective it's quite interesting, a data point in the middle of nowhere.
I'll admit I thought, what's that one person? But it is at least 10
If you ever what to see how hard knowledge-based systems are, try and do something simple like how many bones in X. It explodes into what is a bone, we don't know, what age, is the animal docked, new theory 'we found a unknown bone'Human babies bones fuse as well to go from 300 bones to 206
Chickens are easier to find - 120
May be it's wrong, but it's impossible to confirm. Birds do have less because of flight.
The origin of "13-25" is interesting - it seems to be a commonly cited range for how many neck vertebrae birds in general have. This is the kind of category error that Google's "answer engine" is notorious for. I wonder if the author of that wrong top Google result also got it from Google...
How many bones in a flight'ed bird. No chickens or mostly ground based birds.
Bonus points if it's a parrot, which I can't find.
https://twitter.com/NHM_London/status/1426121697812430848
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Docking_(dog)
The number of foot bones in humans is not consistent. Some people have more, others have less.
My podiatrist told me this.
When I asked him about the foot bones of other mammals, such as dogs and cows, he said “Whoooah!!!”. The conversation became animated. He could hardly contain himself.
I have to imagine being deep in a dark cave, surrounded by gnawed bones including human remains, hearing that must have been terrifying.
... A fun social phenomenon of Hyena and Man as an aside:
The Hyena Men of Nigeria
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28117877