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430k-Year-Old Human Bones Show Lost Hibernation

5/9/2026

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Story summary
  • Scientists in Spain uncovered 430,000-year-old hominin bones with lesions resembling hibernation.
  • The 2020 L’Anthropologie paper linked those lesions to a seasonal metabolic shutdown.
  • A 2025 Science study reported shared hypothalamic regulatory elements across seven hibernating orders.
  • Researchers in Madagascar highlighted the gray mouse lemur as a primate capable of torpor.
  • Scientists say humans dropped hibernation because stable climate, brain cost, and tool use removed pressure.