Neanderthal children in central Europe may have hunted turtles for materials, not their food, according to a study published in Scientific Reports. The study also suggested that the turtles may have been hunted for their taste or for an assumed medicinal value. The research was conducted using high-resolution 3D scanning and found that many of the fragments bore cut marks indicating they had been butchered, limbs and internal organs removed, before the shell had been thoroughly cleaned. This is the first evidence that Neanderthals also hunted and processed turtles north of the Alps, beyond the Mediterranean region. The researchers have ruled out using turtles as a food source given the abundance of prey animals at the site.