Massive volcano 'wiped out the Neanderthals ?

[Ichingcarpenter]

European Neanderthals may have been wiped out by a catastrophic volcanic eruption over 40,000 years ago, according to new research.
A new study says that a massive explosion caused the onset of a 'volcanic winter' that devastated their population. Researchers led by Liubov Golovanova of Russia's ANO Laboratory of Prehistory in St. Petersburg report that volcanic dust deposits found in a cave in the Caucasus show that an ecological disaster was responsible.


Very few plants existed in the volcanic dust layers, the researchers discovered.
The loss of plants would have affected the population of large mammals, which were the Neanderthals' main source of food.
The Neanderthals were replaced about 30,000 years ago by modern-day humans.
Modern humans may have survived the fall-out because much of their population was in Africa which was unaffected, scientists believe.

The study’s authors write: ‘Volcanic eruptions had an unusually sudden and devastating effect on the ecology and forced the fast and extreme climate deterioration ('volcanic winter') of the Northern Hemisphere.’

The team analysed the soil layers in Russia's Mezmaiskaya Cave and identified two types of volcanic ash corresponding to two separate volcanic eruptions in western Asia between 45,000 and 40,000 years ago.
One was a smaller eruption earlier in the Caucasus followed by a massive eruption around 40,000 years in what is now southern Italy.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1315520/Massive-volcano-wiped-Neanderthals.html#ixzz10v8CDyq0


I think the eruption contributed to their extinction but wasn't the only reason.

[hedgehog]

1. Why makes you think we are extinct?

[Orrex]

2. Your sentence structure, for one thing.

Why makes you think we are extinct?

:evilgrin:

[hedgehog]

3. That's what I get for changing sentence structure mid-post!

[Ichingcarpenter]

4. I'm not adverse to the idea of human/Neanderthal mix

But I haven't seen the data yet to prove it.

Besides look what they've done with mice with human brains
to quote the great scientist O'Donnell of Delaware.

[sarge43]

6. No proof yet, but perhaps evidence

http://www.archaeology.org/online/news/dna.html

[hedgehog]

7. Seriously, I am curious to see what turns up in the next few years.

I've read articles suggesting that red hair and fair skin were possible Neanderthal traits (possibly developed independently among Homo Sapiens as well) and other speculations that the autism spectrum reflects a different brain organization passed down from Neanderthal/ homo sapiens hybrids.

[Ichingcarpenter]

8. The Neanderthal genome project

Founded in July 2006, the project published their results in the May 2010 journal Science detailing an initial draft of the Neanderthal genome based on the analysis of four billion base pairs of Neanderthal DNA. The study determined that some mixture of genes occurred between Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans and presented evidence that elements of their genome remain in that of non-African modern humans


Overall, their results were remarkably similar. One group suggested there was a hint of mixing between human and Neanderthal genomes, while the other found none, but both teams recognized that the data set was not large enough to give a definitive answer.

n May 2010, the project released a draft of their report on the sequenced Neanderthal Genome. Contradicting the results discovered while examining mitochondrial DNA, they demonstrated a range of genetic contribution to non-African modern humans ranging from 1% to 4%. From their Homo sapiens samples in Eurasia (French, Han Chinese & Papuan) the authors state that it is likely that interbreeding occurred in the Levant before Homo sapiens migrated into Europe.<18> However, this finding is disputed because of the lack of archeological evidence supporting their statement. The fossil evidence does not place Neanderthals and modern humans in close proximity at this time and place.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neanderthal_genome_project

I think we will find out soon

[hedgehog]

12. It should be interesting

http://www.ifi.uzh.ch/staff/zolli/CAP/Main_face.htm

[teenagebambam]

5. Well, that relieves some of my homo sapien guilt

[Submariner]

9. I think a couple of them survived

[hedgehog]

11. Hey!

[Orsino]

10. Misleading headline that quotes the story rather than a source.

And erroneous info from one of the sources. Neanderthals did live past 38,000 ya, with some remains as young as 32 kya. The eruptions in question may well have "significantly contributed" to the extinction, as a source actually opines.