Do we all have hibernation genes? Human ancestors may have really hibernated

Popular Science Times (Duan Yuechu) The American magazine Discover recently published a research paper pointing out that ancient humans may have hibernated throughout the winter. This discovery has attracted the attention of the anthropology community.

Hibernation is a survival strategy in extreme environments. By lowering body temperature and metabolism, animals can survive food shortages or adverse climates. For ancient humans, if they really adopted a hibernation strategy, it might be a way of survival when they were facing severe cold and food shortages, and they needed some special measures to protect themselves. There are great physiological differences between humans and hibernating animals. Human physiological mechanisms are not suitable for long-term low temperatures and low energy states, which may cause serious harm to the human body.

Around 7,500 human fossils at one archaeological site in Spain are providing researchers with a rare opportunity to explore the ancient human lifestyle and adaptive strategies.

Through detailed investigation of these fossils, researchers found that the damage on the bones of early humans was related to diseases such as rickets, chronic kidney disease, hyperparathyroidism, and bone disorders. These findings attracted great attention from researchers and made them begin to wonder whether ancient humans adopted hibernation as a survival strategy. Further research showed that these bone injuries and signs of disease were strikingly similar to the physiological changes that occur when the human body enters a hibernation state, making the hypothesis of ancient humans hibernating more convincing.

If this new discovery is confirmed, it will have a profound impact on our understanding of the survival strategies and adaptation mechanisms of ancient humans. However, this research is still in its early stages and more evidence is needed to support this hypothesis.