Neanderthal extinction was likely caused by competition with humans and not from climate change as some other research has suggested, according to a new study that was funded by the National Science Foundation International Research Fellowship Program and the EuroClimate and OMLL programs of the European Science Foundation.
Using archaeological and chronological data with high resolution paleoclimatic simulations, researchers have determined that neanderthals and anatomically modern humans (AMH) exploited similar niches and continued to do so in the absence of contact.
The research team concluded that the southerly contraction of the neanderthal range in southwestern Europe was not due to climate change or change in adaptation, but rather the competition with the concurrent AMH expansion that led to the eventual extinction of the neanderthals.
You can read the full study with much more detail
from PLoS One.
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