Read more: 鈥�10 biggest puzzles of human evolution鈥�
MORE than 100,000 years ago, a group of Neanderthals set up home in some huge caverns in the Rock of Gibraltar. At the time, the species was spread far and wide across Europe and Asia, but as the millennia passed, populations dwindled, leaving the Gibraltans among the last, isolated survivors. By 24,000 years ago they, too, had succumbed.
Most theories of Neanderthal extinction point the finger of blame squarely at us. As our ancestors swept across Asia and Europe, they may have brought diseases that the Neanderthals could not fight. Alternatively, we may have outsmarted them in the competition for food and land. Although their brains were as big as ours, recent research suggests they devoted more brain volume to vision, allowing them to see better in the dark north, but leaving less grey matter available for other skills, such as cooperation and advanced tool use (Biology Letters, vol 8, p 90). Even if we made love, not war, we aided the Neanderthal鈥檚 downfall.
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Yet the case against us is not watertight. Neanderthal sites show little sign of direct contact with modern humans, let alone competition or warfare, says Clive Finlayson of the University of Toronto, Canada. Instead he blames the Neanderthal鈥檚 fall, and our rise, on climate change (The Humans Who Went Extinct, Oxford University Press, 2009). With the onset of the last glacial period, around 100,000 years ago, the climate became erratic, and across much of northern Europe vegetation died back leaving cold, windswept plains. Homo sapiens had projectile weapons that allowed them to hunt at a distance, but Neanderthals were adapted to hunting at close range, using bushes to sneak up on prey until they were close enough to thrust a spear into its side. With their cover gone, 鈥渢hey were the living dead鈥�, says Finlayson. The last Neanderthals lingered in more climatically stable regions before other pressures such as drought or disease sounded the death knell for their weakened populations.
Chris Stringer of London鈥檚 Natural History Museum doesn鈥檛 let us off the hook so easily. He agrees that climate is one piece of the puzzle, but thinks we should not downplay competition with modern humans. 鈥淚t was a double whammy,鈥� he says. Who knows, if the fickle climate had tipped the odds the other way, perhaps a Neanderthal would be sitting in your place.
