Ancient humans may have hibernated to survive brutal glacial winters

By Colin Barras

Some of the ancient humans living in Europe half a million years ago had a remarkable strategy for dealing with winter: they hibernated. At least, that’s the claim being made by two researchers. Others dispute the evidence – but ongoing research suggests it might be possible to induce a hibernation-like state in modern humans.

Sima de los Huesos – the “pit of bones” – lies in northern Spain and is one of the world’s most important sites for studying human evolution. Excavations at the …