Did viral disease of humans wipe out the Neandertals?
Neandertals were an anatomically distinct hominoid species inhabiting a vast geographical area ranging from Portugal to western Siberia and from northern Europe to the Middle East. The species became extinct 28,000 years ago, coinciding with the arrival of anatomically modern humans (AMHs) in Europe 40,000 years ago. There has been considerable debate surrounding the main causes of the extinction of Neandertals. After at least 200,000 years of successful adaption to the climate, flora and fauna of Eurasia, it is not clear why they suddenly failed to survive. For many years, climate change or competition with anatomically modern human (AMH) have been the leading hypotheses. Recently these hypotheses have somewhat fallen out of favour due to the recognition that Neandertals were a highly developed species with complex social structure, culture and technical skills. Were AMHs lucky and survived some catastrophe that eradicated the Neandertals? It seems unlikely that this is the case consi
