# 6.5. The Megafauna—Hyena Den Versus Human Import

The megafauna of Westeregeln from historical (cf. \[[18](https://www.mdpi.com/2571-550X/8/4/52#B18-quaternary-08-00052)\]) and new finds presented here has the following biodiversity: the megaherbivorous *Mammuthus primigenius*, *Coelodonta antiquitatis antiquitatis*, *Bison priscus*, *Equus ferus przewalskii*, and *Rangifer tarandus*, and the carnivores *Ursus spelaeus* subsp., *Panthera leo spelaea*, *Crocuta crocuta spelaea*, *Canis lupus* cf. *spelaeus*, *Meles meles*, *Vulpes vulpes*, *Alopex lagopus*, and *Martes* sp.;cf. \[[4](https://www.mdpi.com/2571-550X/8/4/52#B4-quaternary-08-00052)\].

Nehring \[[11](https://www.mdpi.com/2571-550X/8/4/52#B11-quaternary-08-00052)\] found or bought many horse remains from Westeregeln, whereas experiments with this old material demonstrate that, in some cases, there must have been complete legs of *E. f.* cf. *przewalskii*, which are figured and reinterpreted as horse body part prey remains of specialized horse killers imported by hyenas;cf. \[[4](https://www.mdpi.com/2571-550X/8/4/52#B4-quaternary-08-00052),[18](https://www.mdpi.com/2571-550X/8/4/52#B18-quaternary-08-00052)\]. By contrast, this and also possible originally articulated woolly rhinoceros legs were not found in the excavation of the sinkhole. All long bones are strongly fragmented ([Figure 16](https://www.mdpi.com/2571-550X/8/4/52#fig_body_display_quaternary-08-00052-f016) and [Figure 17](https://www.mdpi.com/2571-550X/8/4/52#fig_body_display_quaternary-08-00052-f017)), and teeth of *C. a. antiquitatis*, *B. priscus*, *E. f.* cf. *przewalskii*, and *R. tarandus* appear isolated; only vertebrae are more or less complete (*B. priscus* vertebrae). The longbones and even the mammoth rib fragments have more smashing ([Figure 16](https://www.mdpi.com/2571-550X/8/4/52#fig_body_display_quaternary-08-00052-f016)D–Q) than “carnivore cracking” characters and seem to be products mostly (or only) of human activities. One horse phalanx I is cracked in the median line ([Figure 17](https://www.mdpi.com/2571-550X/8/4/52#fig_body_display_quaternary-08-00052-f017)I), with similar remains typically left by Late Paleolithic Late Magdalenians in several places; e.g., they are well figured for the Teufelsbrücke and Kniegrotte sites in Thuringia (cf. \[[35](https://www.mdpi.com/2571-550X/8/4/52#B35-quaternary-08-00052),[36](https://www.mdpi.com/2571-550X/8/4/52#B36-quaternary-08-00052)\]), where humans smashed those massive phalangeal bones which split mostly median into two halves. In hyena dens, such damaged horse phalanges are never preserved as such and are in most cases untouched, for example, all the lower legs (metapodial to phalanx 3), because they are not of feeding interest for hyenas, like all distal leg elements \[[4](https://www.mdpi.com/2571-550X/8/4/52#B4-quaternary-08-00052),[18](https://www.mdpi.com/2571-550X/8/4/52#B18-quaternary-08-00052)\]. No bone fragments have any characteristic structures of hyena activities (no chewing or bite marks, crushing structures, or zigzag margins, which are typical hyena gnaw marks and bone damages \[[18](https://www.mdpi.com/2571-550X/8/4/52#B18-quaternary-08-00052)\]), nor does the half horse humerus ([Figure 17](https://www.mdpi.com/2571-550X/8/4/52#fig_body_display_quaternary-08-00052-f017)F), which also seems to have been smashed by humans compared to other human/hyena bone assemblage studies;cf. \[[37](https://www.mdpi.com/2571-550X/8/4/52#B37-quaternary-08-00052),[38](https://www.mdpi.com/2571-550X/8/4/52#B38-quaternary-08-00052),[39](https://www.mdpi.com/2571-550X/8/4/52#B39-quaternary-08-00052)\]. The herbivorous megafauna remains (*C. a. antiquitatis*, *B. priscus*, *E. f.* cf. *przewalskii*, and *R. tarandus*) of the sinkhole fill of layers 3–5 must be all or mainly attributed to human import activities, even if puncture marks of tools are not well documented as a result of the surface dissolution or caliche encrustations. The comparison of the historical and more recent findings in hyena dens attributed faunal composition \[[18](https://www.mdpi.com/2571-550X/8/4/52#B18-quaternary-08-00052)\] to the new material from the sinkhole, underlining this result. Typical at hyena dens (in most cases) are the high amounts of remains of the carnivore itself \[[40](https://www.mdpi.com/2571-550X/8/4/52#B40-quaternary-08-00052)\], but this was revised to be only typical at commuting/communal den sites; cf. \[[18](https://www.mdpi.com/2571-550X/8/4/52#B18-quaternary-08-00052)\].

Middle Paleolithic Neanderthal Open-Air Camp and Hyena Den Westeregeln (D)—Competition for Prey in a Mammoth Steppe Environment of Northern Germany (Central Europe)