14 DAY TRIAL // Starting some 300,000 years ago, Neanderthals began ruling the steppes and lands of Eurasia with an iron fist, and it appeared as if nothing could challenge their rule. But, some 40,000 years ago, the unexpected happened – populations dropped to extinction. Experts now think they know why.
The reason why these ancestors of the modern human (Homo sapiens) disappeared is still a matter of hot debate. Some say that the populations simply waned, while others believe migrations of our species from Africa led to a “clash of civilizations.”
But a new investigation proposed that neither of these scenarios was the case. Rather, experts now propose that volcanic eruptions were the main culprit behind the hominids' extinction.
Paleoanthropologists say that there really is no other way to explain why Neanderthals, who endured glacial periods unlike any our species was ever faced with, seemingly vanished from the Earth.
One explanation is that rapidly oscillating climate may have did them in. This makes sense, considering evidence recently uncovered in a cave located in the northern Caucasus Mountains.
Experts digging at the site may have found tell-tale signs that catastrophic volcanic eruptions were responsible for causing the weather swings that signed Neanderthals' death sentences.
The main result of this process was that Eurasia suddenly became available for occupation, which our species did not hesitate to do. Homo sapiens has been occupying the region, and indeed the whole world, ever since.
Also in the recent study, experts found evidence of similar volcanic eruptions at several key Neanderthal locations across the continent, further strengthening the idea that out ancestor were wiped out by these events throughout most of the ranges they previously occupied.
Some groups did manage to escape. They did the only sensible thing to do, which was travel further south, experts write in the latest issue of the esteemed scientific journal Current Anthropology.
The reason why volcanic eruptions are so dangerous is that they can cause so-called volcanic winters, which is when they put so much sulfur particles in the atmosphere that a massive portion of incoming sunlight is reflected back into space.
This causes global temperatures to drop spectacularly over very short periods, of less than a year. The changes took place too fast for the Neanderthals to have time to adapt, and so they where wiped out.
In the Caucasian cave, experts discovered ash deposits that contained chemicals specific to an atmosphere cooled by volcanic activity. But the interpretation they gave to the data did not sit well with all of their colleagues, Scientific American reports.
In other words, the debate as to what killed off the Neanderthals is far from over.