Ran across this at Small Dead Animals...
Global Warming, err, the New Ice Age, err, "Climate Change" ( we used to call this "the weather..." ) really has become a pseudo-religion for some of these characters.
Prepare to meet Thy Carbon Offsets!
Posted on 05/06/2007 6:22:23 AM PDT by Toddsterpatriot
Neanderthals disappeared from Earth more than 20,000 years ago, but figuring out why continues to challenge anthropologists. One team of scientists, however, now says they have evidence to back climate change as the main culprit.
The Iberian Peninsula, better known as present-day Spain and Portugal, was one of the last Neanderthal refuges. Many scientists have thought that out-hunting by Homo sapiens and interbreeding with them brought Neanderthals to their demise, but climate change has also been proposed.
Francisco Jiménez-Espejo, a paleoclimatologist at the University of Granada in Spain, says a lack of evidence has left climate change weakly supported—until now. “We put data behind the theory,” he said, filling in a large gap in European climate records when Neanderthals faded out of existence.
The scientists’ study is detailed in a recent issue of Quaternary Science Reviews.
Cold spell
To figure out the temperature, water supply, and windiness of Iberia from 20,000 to 40,000 years ago, the scientists looked at sediments on the ocean floor off Spain and Portugal. Because wind or water erode rocky minerals differently, the pebbles and fragments wash into the sea in different ratios, creating a steady track record of land conditions at the bottom of the ocean.
The scientists also focused on barite, a compound gathered by marine animals. The more barite in sediment, the more lively the oceans were at the time. “When we found big drops in marine productivity, we knew there were big changes in climatic condition in Iberia,” Jiménez-Espejo says.
The study reveals three rough climatic periods for Neanderthals, with the last and harshest period starting about 26,000 years ago. “The last event was very, very cold and dry,” Jiménez-Espejo says, “and other than 250,000 years ago, such a harsh climate was never reached before.”
Other reasons
But is climate change the only reason Neanderthals died out?
“We’re not saying that,” Jiménez-Espejo said. “What we are saying: Neanderthals struggled with climate change more than modern humans, and during the period of their extinction, very unfavorable climatic conditions were present.”
To reach North America, humans eventually migrated across Siberia and learned to survive in the icy regions.
But “Neanderthals couldn’t make the trip,” Jiménez-Espejo said. This fact, the team believes, highlights the weakness of Neanderthals to cold, open environments—as Iberia would have been at the time of their extinction.
Other scientists think less game for Neanderthals to hunt—and not having modern humans’ skills to hunt them—probably sealed our humanoid cousin’s demise. Yet others believe Neanderthals never went extinct and instead interbred their genes into our own, as recent skeletal evidence might suggest.
There’s an Algore joke in here somewhere, but it’s too early for me to figure it out.
And Climate Change will trounce the Democrat Party, and Socialism worldwide when people eventually find out how they are being deceived.
I knew it. It was those damned SUV’s.
Well, it is quite likely that Al Goreon is a throwback to
the Neanderthals.
Ran across this at Small Dead Animals...
Global Warming, err, the New Ice Age, err, "Climate Change" ( we used to call this "the weather..." ) really has become a pseudo-religion for some of these characters.
Prepare to meet Thy Carbon Offsets!
Neaderthals were doomed when they began ordering roast duck with mango salsa!
I think it was the roast duck with the mango salsa.
Bastard!!!!!... :p
If we just threw more money at studying climate change, just think of all the things we could blame on it.
The Neanderthals died out because they used more than one square of TP.
beat you by 31 seconds!
Let’s see. 20,000 years ago...how about an ice age ??? I hear those wimpy Neanderthanls could not take cold nights...
I have read several times, and I just saw recently on one of the science channels, that scientists have said that the Neanderthals physique allowed them to adapt to cold weather!
Which is is it?!
“Global warming...it’s so simple, even a caveman can cause it.”
Roast duck, mango salsa
41 seconds apart, impressive.
Keep driving those SUVs, stupid humans. All your planet are belong to us.
Gore Mode:
"It gut cold, see? Then the cavemen had to make lotsa FIRES. The FIRE EXHAUST wuz CO2 and that made Global Warming change the climate to Too Hot just like its gonna do now, unless you send muny."
Open areas contributing to Neanderthal extinction? Yes. Cold? No. Neanderthals were built for cold. They were also not built for pursuing game, at speed, over grasslands and open areas. Loss of forest habitat probably hurt them a great deal. As did human competition.
In a class I just finished, we had an instructor who was a living Neanderthal - massive overhanging brow ridges, hint of a sagittal crest, receding chin. Tall, lanky, sloping shoulders, pelvis slightly on the wide side. Healthy looking, intelligent, and oddly, not bad looking if you thought of him as representative of his kind. Good eyes.
Mrs VS
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