The study of bones from the largest collection of Neandertal remains in Northern Europe has revealed evidence of selective cannibalism targeting Neandertal females and children between 41,000 and 45,000 years ago.

The small shells found by researchers that include California State University, Northridge anthropologist Hélène Rougier at La Roche-à-Pierrot, a prehistoric archaeological site in Saint-Césaire, France, date back more than 42,000 years, providing evidence of the oldest workshops for the manufacture of shell ornaments in that area.

Carefully sorting through the detritus — mostly animal bones — of an archaeological excavation that took place in Germany in the 1930s, California State University, Northridge anthropologist Hélène Rougier found inches-long bone fragments that offer a glimpse of what life was like for early modern humans more than 40,000 years ago.