Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Big Chill Killed Off The Neanderthals
New Scientist ^ | 1-21-2004 | Douglas Palmer

Posted on 01/21/2004 3:26:51 PM PST by blam

Big chill killed off the Neanderthals

19:00 21 January 04

It is possibly the longest-running murder mystery of them all. What, or even who, killed humankind's nearest relatives, the Neanderthals who once roamed Europe before dying out almost 30,000 years ago?

Suspects have ranged from the climate to humans themselves, and the mystery has deeply divided experts. Now 30 scientists have come together to publish the most definitive answer yet to this enigma.

They say Neanderthals simply did not have the technological know-how to survive the increasingly harsh winters. And intriguingly, rather than being Neanderthal killers, the original human settlers of Europe almost suffered the same fate.

The last ice age

Led by Tjeerd van Andel of the University of Cambridge, a team of archaeologists, anthropologists, geologists and climate modellers have compiled a vast new set of biological, environmental and social evidence on life between 20,000 and 40,000 years ago.

It includes data from sediment cores and 400 or so archaeological sites, and information gleaned from fossil bones and stone tools. To this they have added the most up-to-date climate models, and radiometric dates of human and Neanderthal sites and artefacts.

Seasonal migration

The result is a definitive series of maps covering climate change over time, the appearance of animal and plant populations, and how human and Neanderthal communities migrated with the seasons. The resolution is so good that, for the first time, researchers can reliably trace the movements of both hominid species.

Ice cores recovered from Greenland in the 1970s show that Europe's climate varied hugely during the last ice age, especially in the period between 70,000 and 20,000 years ago. Cold glacial periods were punctuated by warmer times, and the average temperature could rise and fall several degrees within a decade or so.

Studies of permafrost patterns, the remains of small animals and pollen grains, as well as fossil bones, show that such changes had a dramatic effect on the flora and fauna of the time, including Homo sapiens and Neanderthals.

The maps show that, facing temperatures that plummeted to -10°C in winter (see map), Neanderthals retreated south from northern Europe 30,000 years ago, a migration which coincided exactly with the southern march of the ice sheets (Neanderthal and Modern Humans in the European Landscape of the Last Glaciation: Archaeological Results of the Stage 3 Project).

It is surprising "the extent to which Neanderthals seem to have been deterred by the cold, and retreated as the going got tough," says archaeologist William Davies, a co-editor of the report based at University of Southampton, UK.

Last refuge

The maps also reveal that the earliest modern humans, the Aurignacian people, who appeared around 40,000 years ago, could not cope with the glacial cold either. They retreated south until 25,000 years ago when they were reduced to a few refuges, such as southwest France and the shores of the Black Sea.

The new maps show that even at the height of the last glacial period, 18,000 to around 22,000 years ago, continental Europe supported extensive grasslands which were fodder for huge numbers of migrant animals such as reindeer and bison.

The archaeological evidence strongly suggests that both hominids coexisted in southern Europe for thousands of years, but competed for ever diminishing resources. And that might have been the end for both Homo sapiens and Neanderthals but for the arrival of the technologically advanced Gravettians.

The Gravettians appeared in eastern Europe 29,000 to 30,000 years ago complete with flash new tools, such as javelin-like throwing spears and fishing nets, which allowed them to catch a greater range of prey.

They also had clothing to keep the cold out, such as sewn furs and woven textiles, and possibly more specialised social structures. Their ability to tough out the colder climes dominating Europe 18,000 to 25,000 years ago revitalised the human population.

Adapt to survive

The Neanderthals, however, without either new blood or new technology, found it impossible to survive and died out, probably around 28,000 years ago.

For Neanderthal expert Paul Pettitt of the University of Sheffield, UK, the evidence that climate adversely affected the Aurignacian people as much as the Neanderthals is fascinating. When the going got tough in northern Europe, says Pettitt, both adopted a "get out of the kitchen strategy".

In contrast, Gravettians used their technological prowess "to reorganise the way the kitchen was used". Pettitt says that step was just as revolutionary as becoming modern Homo sapiens in the first place.

Douglas Palmer


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: americas; anthropology; archaeology; bering; big; chill; climatechange; clovis; dillehay; economic; extinction; ggg; glaciation; godsgravesglyphs; history; iceage; killed; multiregionalism; neandertal; neandertals; neanderthal; neanderthals; paleontology; pleistocene; preclovis; science; siberia
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 41-6061-8081-100101-105 next last
To: night reader
So which Clinton is the human and which is the Neanderthal?

Web hubbel is the neanderthal, the witch is the ...the witch.

61 posted on 01/21/2004 10:15:23 PM PST by going hot (Happiness is a momma deuce)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 50 | View Replies]

To: ForGod'sSake
This is insurance for the global warming crowd. Something for them to keep in the background in case the climate ignores their "science" and goes the other way. This way no matter what happens, man caused it. It almost appears that the whole movement is like the ancient nature worshiping religions. You know the kind that tells you that the crop you lost to drought is because of your sins; the chief of which was that you shorted the high priest his "offering" last year.
62 posted on 01/21/2004 10:44:09 PM PST by DeepDish (I no longer capitalize french or france, only things proper or significant are capitalized.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 60 | View Replies]

To: blam
I'm a neanderthal: a hairy, knuckle dragging, gun-owning, reactionary neanderthal and proud of it!
63 posted on 01/22/2004 6:25:36 AM PST by Little Ray (Why settle for a Lesser Evil? Cthuhlu for President!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Agnes Heep
re: I think this is pure bull)))

The nice thing about generating BS is that no one can actually prove you wrong...

In the competition for a Reasonable Working Theory, the arrogant forget that they cannot achieve Truth.

64 posted on 01/22/2004 6:33:29 AM PST by Mamzelle
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]

To: EggsAckley
Wow. My fiance is Danish- she has red hair, blue eyes and a face shpaed just like this child. The article posted earlier in this thread about redheads having the most Neanderthal DNA makes the resemblance interesting.
65 posted on 01/22/2004 6:34:43 AM PST by Modernman ("The details of my life are quite inconsequential...." - Dr. Evil)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: DallasMike
don't know why, but that picture scares me every time someone posts it. If I have nightmares tonight, it's your fault.

Really? I find it quite touching. It's like seeing a picture of a long-lost cousin.

66 posted on 01/22/2004 6:37:58 AM PST by Modernman ("The details of my life are quite inconsequential...." - Dr. Evil)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | View Replies]

To: blam
Ice cores recovered from Greenland in the 1970s show that Europe's climate varied hugely during the last ice age, especially in the period between 70,000 and 20,000 years ago. Cold glacial periods were punctuated by warmer times, and the average temperature could rise and fall several degrees within a decade or so.

Here we have it. Proof that the neanderthals drove SUVs and destroyed their climate.!

67 posted on 01/22/2004 10:48:07 AM PST by John O (God Save America (Please))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ForGod'sSake
I think they do have an agenda and that is to lay out a new "theory" so they can get funded for more research in 2004 but that is just my opinion
68 posted on 01/22/2004 3:54:43 PM PST by ruoflaw
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 60 | View Replies]

To: ruoflaw
I think they do have an agenda and that is to lay out a new "theory" so they can get funded for more research in 2004 but that is just my opinion

Well, it sounds as good as anything else. Any idea where most of this funding comes from? Is there a Junk Science Venture Capital group we haven't heard of? Ah, that would have to be the universities; gatekeepers for every kooky idea/theory/notion that rears its head? I dunno, but something smells.

FGS

69 posted on 01/22/2004 6:50:47 PM PST by ForGod'sSake (ABCNNBCBS: An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 68 | View Replies]

To: ruoflaw
I think they do have an agenda and that is to lay out a new "theory" so they can get funded for more research in 2004 but that is just my opinion.

I'll agree with you. Academia: publish or perish, and lobby for those research grant applications!

70 posted on 01/22/2004 6:59:52 PM PST by xJones
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 68 | View Replies]

To: ForGod'sSake; RightWhale
I think part of the money comes from taxpayers but RightWhale might be able tell you more
71 posted on 01/23/2004 6:59:14 AM PST by ruoflaw
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 69 | View Replies]

To: ValerieUSA
Thanks for calling me in here, Val. The British are obsessed by finding the cause of Neandertal extinction. They're devoted to the racist "Replacement" hypothesis. Neandertal didn't go extinct. Neandertal is part of the ancestry of living humans. There have been no studies that show otherwise, and morphology shows characteristics that are only found in Neandertal (the "h" in the name is incorrect, but the British also still use that) fossils and in the bones of living folks of (mostly) European descent.
72 posted on 01/25/2004 10:08:24 PM PST by SunkenCiv (tomato, tomahto, potato, potahto, depends on what your definition of "is" is)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: carpio
BTTT
73 posted on 02/06/2004 5:57:08 PM PST by carpio
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 11th Earl of Mar; A.J.Armitage; Agnes Heep; Ahban; Alas Babylon!; Andyman; abner; ...
bumpin' the topic, with a reprise from another. Not a ping list, just a reply to those who have posted (other than 2 who I recall have opted off GGG, just to eliminate the possible misunderstanding).
The Neandertal Enigma
by James Shreeve
Frayer's own reading of the record reveals a number of overlooked traits that clearly and specifically link the Neandertals to the Cro-Magnons. One such trait is the shape of the opening of the nerve canal in the lower jaw, a spot where dentists often give a pain-blocking injection. In many Neandertal, the upper portion of the opening is covered by a broad bony ridge, a curious feature also carried by a significant number of Cro-Magnons. But none of the alleged 'ancestors of us all' fossils from Africa have it, and it is extremely rare in modern people outside Europe." [pp 126-127]
NOT A PING LIST, merely posted to: 11th Earl of Mar; A.J.Armitage; Agnes Heep; Ahban; Alas Babylon!; Andyman; abner; ameribbean expat; anniegetyourgun; backtobasics; bert; blam; CathyRyan; Citizen Tom Paine; carpio; colorado tanker; DallasMike; Darlin'; DeepDish; Destructor; Doe Eyes; dc-zoo; dead; dljordan; EggsAckley; ForGod'sSake; Free ThinkerNY; farmfriend; GunRunner; gcruse; genefromjersey; going hot; greenwolf; Henchman; John O; Kirkwood; LiteKeeper; Little Ray; Mamzelle; Migraine; Modernman; miltonim; msdrby; NonValueAdded; night reader; PeterPrinciple; Radix; RightWhale; Rocky; ruoflaw; templar; tpaine; txflake; ValerieUSA; vetvetdoug; xJones; *Gods, Graves, Glyphs

74 posted on 07/24/2004 3:17:35 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Unlike some people, I have a profile. Okay, maybe it's a little large...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: blam
Big Chill Killed Off The Neanderthals

Women and children hardest hit!
Tom Daschle "very concerned!"

75 posted on 07/25/2004 8:18:36 AM PDT by night reader
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Migraine

"there is no one more thickheaded than a liberal, and especially those who waste our time and money trying to stop the warming that ended the ice age."

If you really knew anything about nature than you would know that rising global temperatures will cause a new ice age that we are already about 2 or 3 thousand years over due for. Ice ages are just natures way of creating balance in the environment.
And no i'm not a greeny. It isn't anything to do with the US, you will be affected just as much as the rest of the world, so get off your high horse and stop trying to prove that the US is a better country, you are the same as every other country in the world. You do die over there don't you or are you all immortal......


76 posted on 02/12/2005 11:39:24 AM PST by oblivian (Global warming affects the USA, just like the rest of the world....... Ice age anyone!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: tpaine

Sure thing 'Egg', -- who cares if our rights to life, liberty & property are violated?

So the right to life and liberties and property of other countries aren't as important as Americas.


77 posted on 02/12/2005 11:49:19 AM PST by oblivian (oblivian is a place we are all bound for.... even believers of god.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 39 | View Replies]

To: blam
The Neanderthals, however, ... died out, probably around 28,000 years ago.

Then how do you explain Ted Kennedy?
78 posted on 02/12/2005 12:00:31 PM PST by redheadtoo
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: greenwolf

"Geneticists describe the neanderthal as a separate species from us and as an evolutionary dead end. DNA test showed them to be enough different from us that crossbreeding would not have even been possible. I would guess that our ancestors got tired of looking at them and killed them all."

Than explain genetic cross-breeding in other mammal species.... Dogs for example have been cross-breed to produce better strains and for different purposes (e.g. pit bulls are breed for hunting and protection. Horses are cross-breed to make faster and stronger breeds.) So what makes it impossible for a neanderthal and a homo sapien (the basic equal to a labrador and a poodle) to cross-breed if it is benificial to both species, possibly making one smarter and the other stronger. It's called nature and nature adapts to suit the variables it is impossed with.
In other words there is no such thing as an impossability in nature.


79 posted on 02/12/2005 12:04:54 PM PST by oblivian (oblivian is a place we are all bound for.... even believers of god.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 40 | View Replies]

To: DallasMike
I don't know why, but that picture scares me every time someone posts it....

Yeah, I get scared thinking about my first wife too.

80 posted on 02/12/2005 12:14:13 PM PST by wtc911 ("I would like at least to know his name.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 41-6061-8081-100101-105 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson