Neanderthals used feathers as 'personal ornaments'

Researchers say the result provides more evidence that early man's thinking ability was similar to our own.

The study even suggests Neanderthals had a preference for dark feathers, which they selected from birds of prey and corvids - such as ravens and rooks, the 'BBC News' reported.

Numerous tribals from history have also adorned themselves with feathers, and the authors stress that they are not suggesting we learned the practice from Neanderthals.

Feather ornamentation could in fact go back even further, to a common ancestor of modern humans and Neanderthals, the report said.

Researchers from the Gibraltar Museum, led by Clive Finlayson and Kimberly Brown examined a database of 1,699 ancient sites across Eurasia, comparing data on birds at locations used by humans with those that were not.

They then looked more closely at bird bones found at Neanderthal sites in Gibraltar, including Gorham's and Vanguard cave, near the base of the rock.

"The Neanderthals had cut through and marked the bones. But what were they cutting? We realised a lot of it was wing bones, particularly those holding large primary feathers," Finlayson said.

"We saw the cut-marks on bird bones at one cave, and then started seeing them in others. I think it's a common aspect to the caves in this rock," said Co-author Jordi Rosell, from Rovira i Virgili University in Tarragona, Spain.

The findings are published in the journal 'Plos One'.