Posted on 04/30/2007 3:04:45 PM PDT by blam
Spanish scientists point at climate changes as the cause of the Neanderthal extinction in the Iberian Peninsula
30 April 2007
Climate – and not modern humans – was the cause of the Neanderthal extinction in the Iberian Peninsula. Such is the conclusion of the University of Granada research group RNM 179 - Mineralogy and Geochemistry of sedimentary and metamorphic environments, headed by professor Miguel Ortega Huertas and whose members Francisco José Jiménez Espejo, Francisca Martínez Ruiz and David Gallego Torres work jointly at the department of Mineralogy and Petrology of the University of Granada (Universidad de Granada [http://www.ugr.es]) and the Andalusian Regional Institute of Earth Sciences (CSIC-UGR).
Together with other scientists from the Gibraltar Museum, Stanford University and the Japan Marine Science & Technology Center (JAMSTEC), the Spanish scientists published in the scientific journal Quaternary Science Reviews an innovative work representing a considerable step forward in the knowledge of human ancestral history. The results of this multidisciplinary research are an important contribution to the understanding of the Neanderthal extinction and the colonisation of the European continent by Homo Sapiens.
During the last Ice Age, the Iberian Peninsula was a refuge for Neanderthals, who had survived in local pockets during previous Ice Ages, bouncing back to Europe when weather conditions improved.
Climate reconstructions
The study is based upon climate reconstructions elaborated from marine records and using the experience of Spanish and international research groups on Western Mediterranean paleoceanography. The conclusions point out that Neanderthal populations did suffer fluctuations related to climate changes before the first Homo Sapiens arrived in the Iberian Peninsula. Cold, arid and highly variable climate was the least favourable weather for Neanderthals and 24,000 years ago they had to face the worst weather conditions in the last 250,000 years.
The most important about these data is that they differ from the current scientific paradigm which makes Homo Sapiens responsible for the Neanderthal extinction. This work is a contribution to a new scientific current – leaded by Dr. Clive Finlayson, from the Gibraltar Museum – according to which Neanderthal isolation and, possibly, extinction were due to environmental factors.
These studies on climate variability are part of the work of the group RNM 179, funded by the excellence project RNM 0432 of the Andalusian Regional Government’s Department for Innovation, Science and Business and by the MARCAL project of the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science, both linked to the Andalusian Environment Centre (CEAMA - Centro Andaluz de Medio Ambiente).
Why don’t they blame the sun instead of the son of Bush#1?
Those thoughtless industrialized Cro-Magnons should have used more carbon offsets.
SUV’s, not the sun. Repeat in the morning and rinse.
So, what kind of SUVs did the Neanderthals drive that drove them to extinction?
Inquiring minds want to know (says the proud owner of a Honda SUV).
Damn SUV’s ... Bush’s fault
The Last Glacial Maximum was one of the coldest (if not the coldest) times during the entire Ice Age.
"The Last Glacial Maximum refers to the time of maximum extent of the ice sheets during the last glaciation (the Würm or Wisconsin glaciation), approximately 20,000 years ago. The conditions of the Last Glacial Maximum persisted for probably two thousand years. At this time, all of Northern Europe, almost all of Canada and the northern half of the West Siberian Plain were covered by huge ice sheets extending roughly to the southern boundary of the Great Lakes in North America and to a line from the mouth of the Rhine River through Kraków, Moscow up to the mouth of the Anabar River in Russia."
My DNA indicates that my relatives spent the LGM in the Franco-Iberian refuge.
Neanderthals went extinct ‘cause they was ugly.
All the cave girls wanted to make out with them there pretty-looking Cro-Magnum type guys without the bulging forehead and curved back, and the ugly Neanderthals couldn’t get dates.....
Plus, the Cro-Mag’s probably could speak, and wiped out the Nead’s by coordinating attacks and defenses.
I thought NT didn’t have curved backs — that was a mistake made b/c the early complete skelton of a NT was an old man.
So, global cooling did them in?
That was discovered after the orderly in the old folks home accidently passed out viagra, instead of laxatives.
Neanderthal (left) Modern Human (right)
Looks like wide shoulder that could throw a hell of a punch (or spear).
***Spanish scientists point at climate changes as the cause of the Neanderthal extinction in the Iberian Peninsula***
Well, It is my understanding that of all the items found in their caves the one thing missing is the common bone needle.
So, either the Neandertals were covered with a coat of hair like an ape or they didn’t have the understanding to make clothes out of skins leading them to be froze to death.
First they invented the wheel, and then the Neanderthal SUV, and look where it got them.
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