Another reason I don’t buy this is the implication of their reasoning; i.e. that Neanderthals previously lived in a warmer climate and didn’t need to know how to make warm clothing.
Their very body characteristics indicate that they evolved in cold and harsh environs. As their ancestors (Heidelbergensis?) migrated into Europe they surely had to adapt and find ways to use animal skins and eventually some kind of warm clothing as they found colder and colder winters.
I really hate these snap-of-the-fingers theories where things went from A to B overnight.
I haven’t got a formal list, but I’ve read lots of different (and equally foolish, IMHO) reasons for the supposed demise of Neandertal. Here’s some off the top of my head.
- couldn’t talk (which means, couldn’t yell, “stop, don’t kill me”?)
- couldn’t talk well enough (after it was finally accepted that N could talk)
- couldn’t walk (or rather, couldn’t walk ‘right’)
- couldn’t walk fast enough
- ate too much meat, not enough fish
- couldn’t hunt
- couldn’t compete
- couldn’t adapt to the cold
and today...
- couldn’t sew, and therefore froze to death
My favorite example is a report I read a few years back about Eskimo history. It claimed they were forced into the Arctic by stronger peoples and gradually developed their distinct lifestyle over perhaps five centuries.
The authors apparently didn’t realize that the early Eskimos would have all died in the first year, as many of the early European explorers did, if they hadn’t had most of these tools.