Was Fertility a Factor in the Demise of Neanderthals?

MARSEILLE, FRANCE—A new computer model has been used to test a variety of factors that may have influenced the extinction of the Neanderthals, according to a Live Science report. “For a long time, it was thought that Homo sapiens had simply killed the Neanderthals,” said paleoanthropologist Silvana Condemi of Aix-Marseille University. Results produced by the computer model created by Condemi and her colleagues, however, suggest that wars or epidemics brought on by contact with modern humans would have caused Neanderthals to die off more rapidly than appears to have been the case. Based on findings from the archaeological record, Neanderthals are believed to have lived alongside modern humans in Europe for some 4,000 to 10,000 years. The researchers think a slight drop in the fertility rate among young Neanderthal women, perhaps brought on by climate change and resulting food shortages, could instead be to blame. “This is a phenomenon that is limited in scope that, over time, had an impact,” Condemi said. For more, go to “A Traditional Neanderthal Home.”