Early humans were willing to lend a helping hand - or at least some mushy deer meat - to assist elderly and incapacitated members of their clans, tens of thousand of years earlier than previously believed, scientists said yesterday.
Studying human remains found in southeastern France dating back 175,000 to 200,000 years ago, anthropologists determined that a toothless and apparently very old member of a group of archaic European people called pre-Neanderthals survived for quite a long time despite needing others to prepare food.
This is by far the earliest evidence of such a social safety net existing in human beings, according to Prof Erik Trinkaus, a professor of anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis. He is a member of a team of researchers from Canada, France, Germany and the United States whose findings appear in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"It reinforces the antiquity of what is a uniquely human characteristic - and that is when we have problems our friends and relatives help us out," Prof Trinkaus. "Except for mothers and infants among other species, that only happens at a fairly minimal level. In non-human primates - monkeys and apes in the wild - once they lose their teeth, they die. They starve to death."
Previous research had indicated that early humans did not begin to take care of other community members about 50,000 years ago.
Prof Trinkaus, Mr Serge Lebel of the University of Quebec and their colleagues examined fossils found last year in the Bau de l'Aubesier rock shelter. Because of massive periodontal inflammation, all of the teeth from a jaw fragment found at the site had been missing or ineffective for some time before the individual died, researchers said.
This implies food was cut up by others so the person could continue to eat. The researchers said this changes the understanding of these early humans - specifically relating to when they began to care for people within their groups who had difficulty caring for themselves.
Earlier research had found evidence of caring for infants with birth defects from the same time period.