Why is the Neanderthal extinct?

[Staiduk]

Hello folks. I'm a passing fair student of (recent) history and have at least a basic understanding of anthropology but there is one question I've never understood: Why did Neanderthal Man go extinct? Everything I've ever read states he shouldn't have; indeed Neanderthal should have been the dominant form of Human to take over this world.
Neanderthals were stronger, smarter and at the time more socially advanced than Homo Sapiens. By any yardstick you'd care to use, Neanderthal should have taken over as the dominant primate 100,000 years ago. But he didn't. He died out and I have no understanding as to why. He wasn't more primitive; that's a modern conceit. Neanderthal was smart and canny; with a highly-evolved social structure. So what advantage did H. Sapiens have over H. Neanderthalensis? I can't find ANYTHING that guaranteed our fate over the Neanderthal people. Were we just luckier? Or was there something in our evolution which gave us an advantage? I can't see any - at least nothing which would be enough to wipe out an entire species so advanced in its ability to survive.

Just an idle question; but one which bugs me. Neanderthal should have survived but didn't. WE - the weaker but possibly more adaptable hominid - did.
Why?

 

[MattBaker]

If you could answer that question definitley your name would be known to anthropologists for the next few decades or centuries.

There are several theories, for example it's proven that we carry some kind of Neanderthal genes so it's likely that there was some interbreeding between Homo Sapiens and the Neanderthal and no one got extinct but they just got more and more similar.
Also there are theories based on bones (I think pelvics?) about the abilities of Neanderthals compared to sapiens saying that the Neanderthal was a small compact guy who's strong. But the Sapiens is a skinnier runner guy and at some point the running ability was so important that the slowest guy...got mauled. (Get it? Because Obi-Wan couldn't run that fast and then Qui-Gon was mau...No Prequel references? Damn you!)
Or another theory I heard about recently was that Neanderthal babies took three years to be fed by his mother while the Sapiens took two years. So the Sapiens got more kids and the kids didn't require their mother earlier which is quite an advantage.

But it's possibly to be the same reason like it was with many species: Some catastrophe happened like a meteorite, a volcano, an ice age, climate changed and a combination of the other factors and a new environment. How about no trees or bushes so you have to run fast to get your hunting right, other species died due to climate change so food was short and the remaining Neanderthals got engaged with Sapiens?


If you follow science news a bit more you'll get a lot of new theories and probably all of them mattered to some extent but we won't know the exact causes unless you stumble upon a tombstone saying: "Gordon: Why weren't you made for running?"

 

[Staiduk]

(Get it? Because Obi-Wan couldn't run that fast and then Qui-Gon was mau...No Prequel references? Damn you!)

ROFL!!! You just couldn't resist, could you?

I just can't help wondering about this question. I know very well there is no clear answer; anthropologists have been debating this problem for more than a century. As an Ontario lad I've grown up surounded by the ancient history of the Clovis and earlier humans. As a good Canadian I have worked hard to understand the pre-history of our First Peoples and what brought them into this fertile, glorious country.

I understand little of our Human race's pre-history but as far as I've learned it Humans and Neanderthals lived in quite close harmony thirty thousand generations ago; trading, fighting and often interbreeding. There was very little to differentiate them in those days; they were both tough, resourceful and intelligent peoples. I have no doubt that Humans and Neanderthals interacted together; but only one of the two species remains alive today. I don't understand why. Matt has offered a superb possibility: Maybe the Neanderthals did NOT go extinct - they interbreeded with us. That would certainly explain NFL fans. (Sly chuckle)
But seriously; there is plenty of data detailing the Neanderthals' life but NONE (that I've seen) detailing their loss. I wish I could have seen them; they were our closest cousins.

Thus this topic is not open to firm facts; there are none, according to Science. But well-considered ideas, thoughts and personal opinions are more than welcome.

 

[sorindafabico]

Maybe the "Great Leap Forward" played a role.

 

[Urwumpe]

One aspect there could be, that the neanderthal was quite energy-inefficient. While in many aspects better, stronger, faster, he also needed much more food than the modern humans. When things got tough, the Neanderthal was much stronger suffering than his rivals.

Also, even at their best times, the Neanderthal man seemed to have been a rare sight, optimized for living at the boundary of the ice, while the sapiens sapiens was less specialized.

Its a number of reasons why, that could all apply... and likely did all apply.

 

[RisingFury]

Evolution doesn't select for those that are smarter, stronger, more developed. It selects for those that are best suited for their environment.

We have plenty of highly evolved bacteria today.

 

[Urwumpe]

Evolution doesn't select for those that are smarter, stronger, more developed. It selects for those that are best suited for their environment.

We have plenty of highly evolved bacteria today.

And sometimes those, who had been just lucky. :lol:

The Dodo for example had simply been evolved on the wrong planet.

 

[Quick_Nick]

Species across the globe agree: Living on the same planet as homo sapiens is bad for health.

 

[Ghostrider]

The Dodo for example had simply been evolved on the wrong planet.

When your whole strategy for survival in a glacial period revolves around three watermelons, extinction level events must be expected.

 

[PennyBlack]

I thought Neanderthals died out roughly 20,000 years ago and the last evidence of thier activity before they dissapeared, where discovered in the caves in Gibraltar, southern Spain. I recall this from a documentory a good while ago so please don't take this information as fact, not with my recall anyway. But it's a pity they arn't around today, but then again, I find alot of Neanderthals drinking cans of beer outside the local QuickyMart.

It's a pity they where wiped out, but like alot species, if your not in it to win it, your either dinner or compost.

 

[Ghostrider]

It's a pity they where wiped out, but like alot species, if your not in it to win it, your either dinner or compost.

Yeah. I could see it right at the beginning of the match their heart just wasn't in it. They didn't believe they could win, and they didn't. Not even their cheerleader team was making any effort.

 

[fsci123]

Well i remember hearing that neanderthals took far longer to nurse and give birth to a baby(10 months in the womb and a year of breastfeeding). Also i think the ideal of a violent extinction in which death squads of humans roamed Eurasia in search of larger neanderthals is also a myth. Primarily because the population density of pre-agricultural man would've have made major wars expensive and time wasting. The most likely scenario for neanderthal extinction is that neanderthals were adapted to a cold climate. When the ice age began to end the wildlife that neanderthals depended on moved farther north. Neanderthals who spent longer times caring for children probably didnt have the mobility of humans to chase after dwindling prey. Thus they went extinct.

 

[PennyBlack]

Neanderthals were also skilled at hunting and forageing. They had the ability to manufacture basic tools. I suspect they where quite clever, more so than we think and could have adapted to hunting the differing animals that perhaps migrated. Modern Humans I suspect are responsible for their downfall. Look at what we are like today, there's territorial food/economic, race, nationality, gender, ect and yesturday, we was far worse and less civilised, especially for anything as ugly as those Neanderthals. Facts bolstered by the number of exstinctions that we are responsible for to this point.

Not Human... Can we eat it, kill it or domesticate/control it. There's very little thought after those options I think. Well, not for me.