Freezing temperatures likely contributed to the extinction of Neanderthals

The amount of information we have about the human family tree is steadily growing, but there are still plenty of unanswered questions. One of the biggest mysteries is why our particular branch of human history was able to endure, while others like the Neanderthals were snuffed out. A new study by a group of researchers from multiple institutions in the US and Europe suggests that plunging temperatures may have been too much for Neanderthals to handle.

The work, which was published in Proceedings of the Natural Academy of Sciences, used observations of stalagmites that are tens of thousands of years old. The rocky formations can act as a sort of timeline of change, offering information on how climate patterns shifted over thousands and thousands of years.

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Freezing temperatures likely contributed to the extinction of Neanderthals originally appeared on BGR.com on Thu, 30 Aug 2018 at 22:02:19 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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