According to scientists

Sep 4, 2005 14:30 GMT  ·  By

What really happened to Neanderthals? Did they just disappear? Or did they mingle with Homo Sapiens?

It has been thought for a long time that this certain species has culturally and sexually interacted with Homo Sapiens, which means that we, humans today, carry some genetic luggage of the long lost species.

But there are some new proofs to contradict this theory.

Apparently, the two biped species have indeed coexisted, but there's no scientific evidence that they interacted sexually. Paul Mellars, a prehistory and human evolution teacher for the Cambridge University, along with his colleagues, has dated the fossils that the French archeologists have kept after exploring the Fairy Grotto.

The grotto, which is situated in Chatelperron, is already known as a former Neanderthals habitat. What makes the grotto more special is that it is the place where archeologists have discovered some Human Sapiens bones also. The carbon dating revealed that Neanderthals have indeed lived there 30 or 40 thousand years ago, That period, the last ice age, is known to have had a pretty friendly climate.

Then came a sudden cold snap, when the temperature dropped by 8 degrees Celsius. Due to this change of climate, Homo Sapiens have migrated toward south and inhabited caves for about 1000 to 1500 years.

As the climate grew warmer, Homo Sapiens have come out from the caves and Neanderthals entered them back.

That was the moment Neandhertals dissappeared, for no further tracks of them was found.

"This is the first categorical proof that Neanderthals and modern human beings did overlap in France for more than 1,000 years," Professor Mellars said.

Furthermore, it is a certain proof of their climate vulnerability and inferiority as opposed to the new species.

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