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January 27, 2026<\/p>\n
2 min read<\/p>\n
Add Us On Google<\/span>Add SciAm<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n A foraging teenager was mauled by a bear 27,000 years ago, skeleton shows<\/p>\n The remains of a teenage boy who lived around 27,000 years ago suggest he was attacked by a cave bear\u2014some of the first direct evidence of a predator attacking an ancient human<\/p>\n By Sara Novak edited by Andrea Thompson<\/span><\/p>\n The teenager\u2019s head, showing trauma to the face, with a reconstructed cap of shells, as displayed today (left). The same area after excavation (right).<\/p>\n Archives of the Soprintendenza Archeologia Belle Arti e Paesaggio per la Liguria; From \u201cNew Signs of Skeletal Trauma in the Upper Paleolithic Principe from Arene Candide Cave (Liguria, Italy) Bear Novel Insights into the Circumstances of His Death,\u201d by Stefano Sparacello et al., in Journal of Anthropological Sciences, Vol. 103; 2025<\/p>\n Early humans were avid, proficient hunters, but they could also become the hunted, living as they did among behemoth megafauna such as leopards, cave bears and saber-toothed tigers. We have little physical evidence of these interactions turning violent, however, because burials were rare and carnivores were more likely to finish off their prey. That\u2019s why the embellished burial site of a 15-year-old from 27,000 years ago is an important window into the past: the teenager\u2019s bones indicate he was mauled by a bear. The finding represents some of the first evidence of its kind.<\/p>\n The remains of the boy, nicknamed \u201cIl Principe\u201d (\u201cThe Prince\u201d) because of the bounty found in his burial site, was first uncovered in 1942 in the Arene Candide Cave in Italy. Though scientists first speculated that his death was caused by an animal attack, the claims were never investigated until recently, when researchers reanalyzed the lesions and traumatic injuries using a technique called optic magnification.<\/p>\n The researchers concluded that lesions on the boy\u2019s skull and ankle were bite and claw marks, likely from a cave or brown bear, based on their patterns. \u201cHe was probably a budding hunter still learning his skills when this happened,\u201d says lead study author Vitale Stefano Sparacello, a biological anthropologist at the University of Cagliari in Italy. The findings were published in the Journal of Anthropological Sciences.<\/p>\n If you’re enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.<\/p>\n The animal dislodged the boy\u2019s mandible, left a groove in his skull, broke his clavicle and left a bite mark on his right ankle. Even the boy\u2019s left pinky toe had been fractured. Though we don\u2019t know for sure, Sparacello contends that the injuries are indicative of a bear who would have viewed the boy as more of a menace that needed to be neutralized than a meal because these bears mostly ate plants.<\/p>\n The \u201cIl Principe\u201d burial, as displayed at the Museo di Archeologia Ligure in the Pegli neighborhood of Genoa in Italy.<\/p>\n From \u201cNew Signs of Skeletal Trauma in the Upper Paleolithic Principe from Arene Candide Cave (Liguria, Italy) Bear Novel Insights into the Circumstances of His Death,\u201d by Stefano Sparacello et al., in Journal of Anthropological Sciences, Vol. 103; 2025<\/p>\n The lack of bone healing at the clavicle shows that the boy likely suffered with his injuries for days before succumbing to them.<\/p>\n The elaborate nature of the burial site, adorned with a handwoven shell cap atop the boy\u2019s head, along with shells, knives and all sorts of other ritual objects, may have been intended to ward off future evil events like the one that sealed this boy\u2019s fate. \u201cThese burials are as much about the living as they are about the dead,\u201d says Christopher J. Kn\u00fcsel, a biological anthropologist at the University of Bordeaux in France, who was not involved in the study.<\/p>\n The findings provide a firsthand look at the boy\u2019s final agonizing days, says Lawrence Straus, a professor emeritus in anthropology at the University of New Mexico, who was not involved in the study. \u201cThis is a glimpse into the humanity of those who lived during the last ice age,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n If you enjoyed this article, I\u2019d like to ask for your support. Scientific American<\/span> has served as an advocate for science and industry for 180 years, and right now may be the most critical moment in that two-century history.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been a Scientific American<\/span> subscriber since I was 12 years old, and it helped shape the way I look at the world. SciAm <\/span>always educates and delights me, and inspires a sense of awe for our vast, beautiful universe. I hope it does that for you, too.<\/p>\n If you subscribe to Scientific American<\/span>, you help ensure that our coverage is centered on meaningful research and discovery; that we have the resources to report on the decisions that threaten labs across the U.S.; and that we support both budding and working scientists at a time when the value of science itself too often goes unrecognized.<\/p>\n In return, you get essential news, captivating podcasts, brilliant infographics, can’t-miss newsletters, must-watch videos, challenging games, and the science world’s best writing and reporting. You can even gift someone a subscription.<\/p>\n There has never been a more important time for us to stand up and show why science matters. I hope you\u2019ll support us in that mission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" January 27, 2026 2 min read Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAm A foraging teenager was mauled by a bear 27,000 years ago, skeleton shows The remains of a teenage boy who lived around 27,000 years ago suggest he was attacked by a cave bear\u2014some of the first direct evidence of a predator attacking an ancient<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42878,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[4528,10763,22513,871,15923,13913,637],"class_list":{"0":"post-42877","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-bear","9":"tag-foraging","10":"tag-mauled","11":"tag-shows","12":"tag-skeleton","13":"tag-teenager","14":"tag-years"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42877\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/42878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}On supporting science journalism<\/h2>\n
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