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Rather than being physically wiped out, a new study suggests that Neanderthals were likely integrated into the gene pool of early humans after the two groups crossed paths and began interbreeding.
The new study, published in the journal Advances in Complex Systems (ACS), was written by C. Michael Barton of Arizona State University (ASU) and Julien Riel-Salvatore of the University of Colorado Denver, and "builds on work published last year in the journal Human Ecology and on recent genetic studies that show a Neanderthal contribution to the modern human genome," according to a February 6 ASU press release.
Barton and Riel-Salvatore used archaeological data in order to track behavioral, cultural, and social-ecological changes throughout Western Eurasia over a span of 120,000 years.
Their computer models showed both Neanderthals and early humans began to interact and mate more as a result of shifting land-use patterns during the Upper Pleistocene era, resulting in a hybridization of the two species rather than the out-and-out extinction of either.
While Neanderthals were limited to the western part of the supercontinent, and as the smaller population were the ones to effectively die-out, the researchers found that "succeeding hybrid populations still carry genes from the regional group that disappeared," according to the press release.
Comment: Bad science. Where is the evidence for global warming? For example see: Forget Global Warming - It's Cycle 25 We Need to Worry About where we read: For a species that is "between 12,000 and 200,000 years old" it seems to have survived many shifts in climate just fine. What won't survive the next shift in climate are studies linked to 'man made global warming'.