DUH! Freezing is 32 degrees F, not zero degrees F.
"Neanderthals appear to have tolerated temperatures as cold as zero degrees Fahrenheit, but during the last ice age, winter temperatures dipped to well below freezing."
Zero degrees Fahrenheit is very cold. It is approaching artic. Animals without a solid slab of blubber , combined with hibernation , or else body fat combined with a thick wooly coat are unlikely to survive prolongued exposure.
The soft sciences have gone into the realm of the silly, you can't do anything but laugh....