The main theory of the disappearance of the Neanderthals was refuted

As part of the SUCCESS project, scientists analyzed pollen from the cores of a paleolake (an ancient lake) and minerals

collected from ancient stalactites.In fact, they are climate time machines. Researchers have deciphered what the environment was like when they formed. The data disproved the leading theory about the extinction of Neanderthals.

The Neanderthals lived in the Middle and Late erasPleistocene, approximately 400,000 to 40,000 years ago. They inhabited Eurasia, their traces were found in the north, all the way to modern Belgium, and in the south, in the Mediterranean and South-West Asia.

Neanderthals inhabited Europe for more than 350,000 yearsand Asia until, as a result of a sudden (by evolutionary standards) change, they disappeared about 40,000 years ago. Around the same time, anatomically modern humans, Homo sapiens, appeared in Africa.

They weren't the only hominid(humanoid) species that existed on the planet at that time. Other archaic human groups, such as Homo floresiensis and the Denisovans, also lived on Earth.

There are a number of competing theories thatexplain why Neanderthals disappeared. For example, this could be influenced by the aggression of evolved Homo sapiens, possible competition for resources, or even the fact that Neanderthals disappeared due to interbreeding with Homo sapiens. Some human populations that live today in Europe and Asia share 3% Neanderthal DNA.

Also, some scientists argue that the changeclimate may have pushed Neanderthals toward extinction. While this may have been true for other regions, it was very different in Italy, said the new study's lead author, Professor Stefano Benazzi of the University of Bologna in Italy. He is an anthropologist who leads the SUCCESS project to study the early migration of Homo sapiens in Italy.

Scientists from the SUCCESS project have reconstructedpaleoclimate (ancient climate) from 40,000 to 60,000 years ago. Unlike the analysis of ice cores from Greenland, experts did not find traces of catastrophic climate change in Italy. It is unlikely that it killed the Neanderthals.

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Cover photo: World History Encyclopedia