“We hypothesize that endurance running performance may have been reduced in Neanderthals because they lived in cold climates.”
Well what about all those that lived in the Middle East? Was it cold then? What about the sea level - hundreds of feet lower then today — where any living on the beach, so to speak?
hypothesis, spypothesis the learned types still haven’t a clue
Need to await our resident Neanderthal (expert, that is), blam, for the answer to your excellent question.
Let’s see, the Middle East is pretty much as the same latitude as the United States ~ and there were people living there ~ so what is your point?