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Climate Change, Not Humans, Trounced Neanderthals
Yahoo! News ^ | May 4, 2007 | Dave Mosher

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.


TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: godsgravesglyphs; killersuvs; neandertal; neandertals; neanderthal; neanderthals
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1 posted on 05/06/2007 6:22:26 AM PDT by Toddsterpatriot
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To: Toddsterpatriot

There’s an Algore joke in here somewhere, but it’s too early for me to figure it out.


2 posted on 05/06/2007 6:28:06 AM PDT by neodad (USS Vincennes (CG-49) Freedom's Fortress)
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To: Toddsterpatriot

And Climate Change will trounce the Democrat Party, and Socialism worldwide when people eventually find out how they are being deceived.


3 posted on 05/06/2007 6:29:46 AM PDT by centurion316 (Democrats - Supporting Al Qaida Worldwide)
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To: Toddsterpatriot

I knew it. It was those damned SUV’s.


4 posted on 05/06/2007 6:31:54 AM PDT by Paleo Conservative
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To: neodad
“There’s an Algore joke in here somewhere”

Well, it is quite likely that Al Goreon is a throwback to
the Neanderthals.

5 posted on 05/06/2007 6:32:40 AM PDT by AlexW (Reporting from Bratislava, Slovakia)
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To: neodad
There’s an Algore joke in here somewhere, but it’s too early for me to figure it out.

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!

6 posted on 05/06/2007 6:34:38 AM PDT by backhoe (Just a Merry-Hearted Keyboard PirateBoy, plunderin’ his way across the WWW…)
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To: Toddsterpatriot

Neaderthals were doomed when they began ordering roast duck with mango salsa!


7 posted on 05/06/2007 6:36:03 AM PDT by silverleaf (Fasten your seat belts- it's going to be a BUMPY ride.)
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To: Toddsterpatriot

I think it was the roast duck with the mango salsa.


8 posted on 05/06/2007 6:36:44 AM PDT by bahblahbah
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To: silverleaf

Bastard!!!!!... :p


9 posted on 05/06/2007 6:37:14 AM PDT by bahblahbah
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To: Toddsterpatriot

If we just threw more money at studying climate change, just think of all the things we could blame on it.


10 posted on 05/06/2007 6:38:19 AM PDT by sms
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To: neodad
There’s an Algore joke in here somewhere ...

The Neanderthals died out because they used more than one square of TP.

11 posted on 05/06/2007 6:38:39 AM PDT by pnh102
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To: bahblahbah

beat you by 31 seconds!


12 posted on 05/06/2007 6:40:01 AM PDT by silverleaf (Fasten your seat belts- it's going to be a BUMPY ride.)
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To: Toddsterpatriot

Let’s see. 20,000 years ago...how about an ice age ??? I hear those wimpy Neanderthanls could not take cold nights...


13 posted on 05/06/2007 6:42:02 AM PDT by EagleUSA
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To: Toddsterpatriot
highlights the weakness of Neanderthals to cold

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?!

14 posted on 05/06/2007 6:42:18 AM PDT by CaptRon (Pedicaris alive or Raisuli dead)
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To: Toddsterpatriot

“Global warming...it’s so simple, even a caveman can cause it.”


15 posted on 05/06/2007 6:42:44 AM PDT by RichInOC (No! BAD Rich!)
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To: silverleaf; bahblahbah

Roast duck, mango salsa

41 seconds apart, impressive.


16 posted on 05/06/2007 6:44:06 AM PDT by oakcon (America wants you: Run Fred Run!)
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To: Paleo Conservative

Keep driving those SUVs, stupid humans. All your planet are belong to us.

17 posted on 05/06/2007 6:47:37 AM PDT by Toddsterpatriot (Why are protectionists (and goldbugs) so bad at math?)
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To: EagleUSA
Let’s see. 20,000 years ago...how about an ice age ??? I hear those wimpy Neanderthanls could not take cold nights...

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."

18 posted on 05/06/2007 6:48:22 AM PDT by Gorzaloon (Global Warming: A New Kind Of Scientology for the Rest Of Us.)
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To: Toddsterpatriot

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.


19 posted on 05/06/2007 6:49:22 AM PDT by PzLdr ("The Emperor is not as forgiving as I am" - Darth Vader)
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To: Toddsterpatriot
Yet others believe Neanderthals never went extinct and instead interbred their genes into our own, as recent skeletal evidence might suggest.

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

20 posted on 05/06/2007 6:52:03 AM PDT by VeritatisSplendor
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