Crippled caveman saved by his friends

A DEAF, blind and crippled caveman lived into older age thanks to help from his friends, according to research.

The badly disabled individual hobbled about in what is now Iraq 50,000 years ago and would never have survived without them, scientists said.

Despite missing a forearm and limping heavily, along with the hearing and vision loss, he was well into his 40s when he died – the equivalent of 80 today.

The remains of the infirm Neanderthal, known as Shanidar 1 or Nandy, were found during excavations at Shanidar Cave in Iraqi Kurdistan in 1957.

Now scientists have studied Nandy’s remains and their findings have been published in the journal PLoS ONE.

Professor Erik Trinkaus, of Washington University, St Louis, said Nandy would not have survived without help.

He said: “More than his loss of a forearm, bad limp and other injuries, his deafness would have made him easy prey for the ubiquitous carnivores in his environment and dependent on other members of his social group for survival.”