====== Neanderthal extinction ======

In August 2014 an international research team reported (in [[http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v512/n7514/full/nature13621.html|Nature]] 512, pages 306–309 {{:oa_padlock_red.png?16}}<sup>[ paywalled ] </sup>) on a new analysis of 40 sites in Western Europe - concluding that Neanderthals died out about 40,000 years ago.

There are numerous theories which attempt an explanation of their extinction - including :

  * Failure or inability to adapt to climate change
  * Competitive exclusion by modern humans   
  * Deliberate violent extinction by modern humans   
  * Extinction via interbreeding (hybridisation)   
  * Natural catastrophe   
  * Species-specific parasites and/or pathogens.

As yet, no theory has been universally accepted by experts in the field. The explanation could be a combination (or none) of the above.

 Further reading [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neanderthal_extinction|Wikipedia]]

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 Also see [[content:life_sciences:zoology:neanderthal_behaviour]]