Early humans may have hibernated to survive harsh winters

[Good old]

Does Hibernate share similar roots to Hibernia, a Greek and Roman designation for the island of Ireland...?

Not always accepted by all, but it is thought to mean winter. Hence winter sleep.  Hibernia, was used more by the Romans. But it derived from Greek expressions.

[patman post]

Does Hibernate share similar roots to Hibernia, a Greek and Roman designation for the island of Ireland...?

[Good old]

If Neanderthals hibernated, then, since they're closely related to modern humans, we ought to be able to hibernate too.  Can we hibernate?

My grandson can.

[papasmurf]

If Neanderthals hibernated, then, since they're closely related to modern humans, we ought to be able to hibernate too.  Can we hibernate?

I know people who would hibernate if they could get away with it.

[HDQQ]

If Neanderthals hibernated, then, since they're closely related to modern humans, we ought to be able to hibernate too.  Can we hibernate?

There are instances of humans going into near-hibernation, for example these Russian peasants 100 years ago:  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1117993/

Perhaps that's what Neanderthals did too - near-hibernation.

[Borg Refinery]

The research has been published in the scientific journal L'Anthropologie. In their research, Juan-Luis Arsuaga and Antonis Bartsiokas of Democritus University of Thrace in Greece have based their theory on study of bones found in  Sima de los Huesos (The pit of bones), a cave in northern Spain that contains fossilised remains of bones of early humans that inhabited the region half a million years ago.



The cave is a mass grave, say researchers who have found large number of remains of bones and human teeth. These belonged to Neanderthal humans.

Also Read | Will ghost sharks vanish before scientists can study them?

The bones show a peculiarity. The bone show signs that their growth was disrupted. This shows seasonal variation, as per the researchers. This, say the researchers, shows that the bone growth was disrupted for several months in a year. This disruption was due to hibernation, they say.

These humans found themselves "in metabolic states that helped them to survive for long periods of time in frigid conditions with limited supplies of food and enough stores of body fat" say the researchers in their paper. In essence, the researcher say that these humans hibernated during winter months to cope with extreme cold and shortage of food.

The researchers admit that this may sound like science fiction but point out that mammals such as bushbabies and lemurs do this.

"This suggests that the genetic basis and physiology for such a hypometabolism could be preserved in many mammalian species including humans," say the researchers.[

The newscientist points out there are 'competing theories' at present from the snippet I can read, but cites the story anyway.