[mtron_]

They used a very cool way to analyze the Bones. Instead of chopping off samples the bones were put in a plasic Box and a tiny static upbild was enough to kick some molecules out of them which they analyzed and identified the species.

[INTPenis]

Yes, and this lead to the assumption that neanderthals thought ahead about which bones to use for various tasks.

That's about the gist of this article. Cool new bone sampling tech and an obvious assumption.

Sorry but that was a bit anti-climactic to me. :)

[pedrovhb]

Well, it's obvious if we assume that neanderthals have close mental faculties to our own, but we don't really know that. Abstract thinking and forethought are things that we take for granted but can't just blindly assume other species have the same capabilities. In this sense, I'd say the discovery is meaningful in the sense that it gives us a bit more certainty that they did have a significant forethought capability.

I'm not sure I would jump to the same conclusions, though. Although reindeer bone tools weren't found, maybe that doesn't mean that they weren't made, just that the artifacts didn't survive as well.