A new study posits a very surprising answer to one of history’s great mysteries—what killed off the Neanderthals?
A new study posits a very surprising answer to one of history’s great mysteries—what killed off the Neanderthals?
Could it be that they were unadventurous, insular homebodies who never strayed far enough from home?
Scientists studying the remains of a Neanderthal found in France said Wednesday that these human relatives were socially isolated from each other for tens of thousands of years, which could have fatally reduced their genetic diversity.
Up to now, the main theories for their demise were climate change, a disease outbreak, and even violence—or interbreeding—with Homo Sapiens.
Neanderthals populated Europe and Asia for a long time—including a decent stint living alongside early modern humans—until they abruptly died off 40,000 years ago.
That was the last moment when more than one species of human coexisted on Earth, French archaeologist Ludovic Slimak told AFP.
It was a “profoundly enigmatic moment, because we do not know how an entire humanity, which existed from Spain to Siberia, could suddenly go extinct”, he said.
Slimak is the lead author of a new study in the journal Cell Genomics, which looked at the fossilized remains of a Neanderthal discovered in France’s Rhone Valley in 2015.
The remains were found in Mandrin cave, which is known to have been home to both Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens over time.
The Neanderthal, dubbed Thorin in reference to the dwarf in J.
