Volcanoes Wiped out Neanderthals, New Study Suggests

[Elmore Furth]

Just as Toba nearly drove humans to extinction 73,000 years ago, data suggests Neanderthals did actually become extinct from volcanic climate change 40,000 years ago, due to the Campanian Ignimbrite, a super volcano near Naples. The Heinrich Event 4, a cooling period associated with the Campanian Ignimbrite, lasted 250 years.

Toba catastrophe theory

Constraints on the duration and freshwater release of Heinrich event 4 through isotope modelling

ScienceDaily (Oct. 7, 2010) — New research suggests that climate change following massive volcanic eruptions drove Neanderthals to extinction and cleared the way for modern humans to thrive in Europe and Asia.

The research, led by Liubov Vitaliena Golovanova and Vladimir Borisovich Doronichev of the ANO Laboratory of Prehistory in St. Petersburg, Russia, is reported in the October issue of Current Anthropology.

"e offer the hypothesis that the Neanderthal demise occurred abruptly (on a geological time-scale) … after the most powerful volcanic activity in western Eurasia during the period of Neanderthal evolutionary history," the researchers write. "his catastrophe not only drastically destroyed the ecological niches of Neanderthal populations but also caused their mass physical depopulation."

Evidence for the catastrophe comes from Mezmaiskaya cave in the Caucasus Mountains of southern Russia, a site rich in Neanderthal bones and artifacts. Recent excavations of the cave revealed two distinct layers of volcanic ash that coincide with large-scale volcanic events that occurred around 40,000 years ago, the researchers say.



Volcanoes Wiped out Neanderthals, New Study Suggests

[greyl]

1. Your post reads like they aren't, but Neanderthals are indeed human. nt

[nomorenomore08]

2. At one time, they were considered a subspecies of H. sapiens.

Now they're considered their own separate species, H. neanderthalensis. Which shows that, when it comes to our hominid ancestors, the line between "human" and "non-human" isn't a clear one.

[14thColony]

3. True, although there's now a minority that feel that was too hasty

And perhaps the classification H. Sapiens Neanderthalensis was correct to begin with. In any even the recent Planck study shows that even if separate species, we could all still interbreed. In either case, I'd say where ever the line may be we and the Neanderthals were both firmly on the same side of it.

[freebrew]

4. I thought that there was evidence

lately that the two 'sub-species' actually did interbreed. Wasn't there a DNA comparison that showed that many humans have neanderthal DNA?

[mopinko]

7. isn't that the definition of a species?

if 2 'varieties' can breed, then they are the same species?

[greyl]

5. The H stands for Homo, the human genus. nt

[laconicsax]

6. A genus includes multiple species.

The genus Canis includes domestic dogs, wolves, coyotes, and jackals.

Similarily, the genus Homo has included numerous different species. "Human" really only applies to H. sapiens and possibly direct ancestors. It's a blurry line, but Neanderthals, being close cousins, weren't human just like how huskies aren't wolves.