On Jun 2, 6:24 pm,
use...@mantra.com and/or
www.mantra.com/jai (Dr.
Jai Maharaj) wrote:
> Why did the Neanderthals die out?
>
> A major conference in London this week will reveal the
> results of five years' research on why Homo sapiens
> emerged triumphant in the survival battle of the humans
>
> New research has revealed that Neanderthals died out
> within a few thousand years of the appearance of Homo
> sapiens. Photograph: BBC
>
> By Robin McKie science editor
> The Guardian
> Sunday, June 2, 2013
>
> The puzzle is one of the greatest surrounding our
> species. On a planet that bristled with different types
> of human being, including Neanderthals and the Hobbit-
> like folk of Flores, only one is left today: Homo
> sapiens.
>
> Our current solo status on Earth is therefore an
> evolutionary oddity – though it is not clear when our
> species became Earth's only masters, nor is it clear why
> we survived when all other versions of humanity died out.
> Did we kill off our competitors, or were the others just
> poorly adapted and unable to react to the extreme
> climatic fluctuations that then beset the planet?
>
> These key issues are to be tackled this week at a major
> conference at the British Museum, in London, called When
> Europe was covered by ice and ash. At the meeting
> scientists will reveal results from a five-year research
> programme using modern dating techniques to answer these
> puzzles.
>
> In particular, researchers have focused on the
> Neanderthals, a species very close in physique and brain
> size to modern humans. They once dominated Europe, but
> disappeared after modern humans emerged from our African
> homeland around 60,000 years ago. The question is: why?
>
> "A major problem in understanding what happened when
> modern humans appeared in Europe has concerned the dates
> for our arrival," said Professor Chris Stringer, of the
> Natural History Museum, London. "It was once thought we
> appeared in Europe around 35,000 years ago and that we
> coexisted with Neanderthals for thousands of years after
> that. They may have hung on in pockets – including caves
> in Gibraltar – until 28,000 years ago, it was believed."
Actually the Netherlander Fossils died out because of too many "Bob
Officers" living among them.