Homo sapiens WERE to blame for Neanderthal extinction because they were better hunters and out-competed them for food, computer model shows
- Experts have long been divided on he reason for the extinction of Neanderthals
- They lived in Eurasia for 300,000 years and went extinct 40,000 years ago
- This coincided with the introduction of Homo sapiens into their territory
- Supercomputer has found the most likely cause of Neanderthal extinction is that Homo sapiens were better hunters and out-competed them for food
A supercomputer may have finally ended the debate over what caused the extinction of Neanderthals.
Mathematicians used the enormous processing power of the IBS supercomputer Aleph to simulate what happened throughout Eurasia around 40,000 years ago.
It revealed that the most likely explanation for Neanderthal extinction is that Homo sapiens, which migrated into in Europe around the time of the extinction of Neanderthals, were better hunters and out-competed them for food.
Humans and Neanderthals are known to have overlapped, and even mated, but the superior brain power of Homo sapiens eventually wiped out their distant cousins.
Experts have long quarrelled over whether it was tumultuous climate patterns, competition for food with Homo sapiens or the interbreeding with this new species that ultimately led to the demise of Neanderthals.
Scroll down for video
Pictured, computer simulated images showing the population density of Neanderthals (left) and Homo sapiens (right) 43,000 years ago (upper) and 38,000 years ago (lower). Orange (green) circles indicate archaeological sites between 43 and 38 thousand years ago
A map showing the relative dates at which humans arrived in the different Continents, including Europe 45,000 years ago. All humanity began in Africa, and moved beyond it after dispersing throughout the continent over thousands of years
By factoring in all of the potential variables and simulating various scenarios, the team of researchers from the Institute for Basic Science in South Korea believe it was the competition for food that triggered the extinction of Neanderthals.
After 250,000 years roaming Eurasia, the Neanderthals had very little competition for food.
But when Homo sapiens — modern humans — moved into Europe they hunted the same animals and sought the same plants to survive.
It was this competition over limited resources which led Neanderthals to extinction at some point between 43 to 38 thousand years ago, according to the new study.
The scientific model came to this conclusion by solving equations that describe how Neanderthals and Homo sapiens moved in a time-varying glacial landscape and under shifting temperature, rainfall and vegetation patterns.
In the model, both hominin groups compete for the same food resources and a small fraction is allowed to interbreed, to mimic what happened in reality.
A CLOSE HUMAN RELATIVE, THE NEANDERTHALS, DIED OUT AROUND 40,000 YEARS AGO
The Neanderthals were a close human ancestor that mysteriously died out around 40,000 years ago.
The species lived in Africa with early humans for hundreds of millennia before moving across to Europe around 300,000 years ago.
They were later joined by humans taking the same journey some time in the past 100,000 years.
The Neanderthals were a cousin species of humans but not a direct ancestor – the two species split from a common ancestor – that perished around 50,000 years ago. Pictured is a Neanderthal museum exhibit
These were the original ‘cavemen’, historically thought to be dim-witted and brutish compared to modern humans.
In recent years though, and especially over the last decade, it has become increasingly apparent we’ve been selling Neanderthals short.
A growing body of evidence points to a more sophisticated and multi-talented kind of ‘caveman’ than anyone thought possible.
It now seems likely that Neanderthals buried their dead with the concept of an afterlife in mind.
Additionally, their diets and behaviour were surprisingly flexible.
They used body art such as pigments and beads, and they were the very first artists, with Neanderthal cave art (and symbolism) in Spain apparently predating the earliest modern human art by some 20,000 years.
Experts have long quarrelled over whether it was tumultuous climate patterns, competition for food with Homo sapiens or the interbreeding with this new species which ultimately led to the demise of Neanderthals (file photo)
‘This is the first time we can quantify the drivers of Neanderthal extinction,’ said Professor Axel Timmermann, who led the research.
‘In the computer model I can turn on and off different processes, such as abrupt climate change, interbreeding or competition.’
The model only reveals what most likely happened based on a set of inputted parameters, but it does not reveal why this outcome was most likely.
However, the researchers say Homo sapiens were more successful that Neanderthals in the search for the same food sources due to better hunting techniques, stronger resistance to pathogens or higher rates of reproduction.
‘Neanderthals lived in Eurasia for the last 300,000 years and experienced and adapted to abrupt climate shifts, that were even more dramatic than those that occurred during the time of Neanderthal disappearance,’ says Professor Timmermann.
‘It is not a coincidence that Neanderthals vanished just at the time when Homo sapiens started to spread into Europe.
‘The new computer model simulations show clearly that this event was the first major extinction caused by our own species.’
Pictured, a map showing the locations of famous ancient human ancestor fossils which have helped paint the picture of early hominin migration out of Africa and around the world
WHEN DID HUMAN ANCESTORS FIRST EMERGE?
The timeline of human evolution can be traced back millions of years. Experts estimate that the family tree goes as such:
55 million years ago – First primitive primates evolve
15 million years ago – Hominidae (great apes) evolve from the ancestors of the gibbon
7 million years ago – First gorillas evolve. Later, chimp and human lineages diverge
A recreation of a Neanderthal man is pictured
5.5 million years ago – Ardipithecus, early ‘proto-human’ shares traits with chimps and gorillas
4 million years ago – Ape like early humans, the Australopithecines appeared. They had brains no larger than a chimpanzee’s but other more human like features
3.9-2.9 million years ago – Australoipithecus afarensis lived in Africa.
2.7 million years ago – Paranthropus, lived in woods and had massive jaws for chewing
2.6 million years ago – Hand axes become the first major technological innovation
2.3 million years ago – Homo habilis first thought to have appeared in Africa
1.85 million years ago – First ‘modern’ hand emerges
1.8 million years ago – Homo ergaster begins to appear in fossil record
800,000 years ago – Early humans control fire and create hearths. Brain size increases rapidly
400,000 years ago – Neanderthals first begin to appear and spread across Europe and Asia
300,000 to 200,000 years ago – Homo sapiens – modern humans – appear in Africa
50,000 to 40,000 years ago – Modern humans reach Europe