Riddle of the vanishing Neanderthals finally solved... they were overrun by modern humans

It has been one of the great mysteries of human existence.


But scientists have cracked what happened to our Neanderthal ancestors, who ruled the globe for 300,000 years then suddenly vanished.
For generations, experts have pointed to humans’ superior brains or better hunting techniques as the reason for our supremacy.
But Cambridge University researchers have discovered the real answer was much simpler - we overran them.
Modern humans, who evolved in the cradle of Africa, arrived in Europe with more than ten times the population of the Neanderthals and took over their habitats.
This dramatic increase  in numbers meant the Neanderthals were unable to compete for animals and scarce food supplies during the freezing sub-zero winters.
And with more of our own kind, and more complex systems of communication, humans relied on each other for help and were able to trade resources in times of scarcity.
Professor Sir Paul Mellars, Professor Emeritus of Prehistory and Human Evolution at the Department of Archaeology, said:  ‘Faced with this kind of competition, the Neanderthals seem to have retreated initially into more marginal and less attractive regions of the continent and eventually – within a space of at most a few thousand years – for their populations to have declined to extinction….around 40,000 years ago.’

His teams studied ruins from the Perigord region of south-western France which contains the largest concentration of Neanderthal and early human sites in Europe.
There they found clear evidence that humans penetrated the region in ten times the numbers of the local Neanderthals and much bigger areas of occupation – seen in stone tools and animal food remains.

Neanderthal populations declined to extinction around 40,000 years ago

The researchers believe their findings, published in the journal Science, demonstrate for the first time the massive numerical supremacy the earliest modern human populations had over the Neanderthals and resolve the long-running debate over the reasons for their extinction.

Modern humans arrived in Europe from Africa with ten times the population of Neanderthals and simply overran them

Whether humans also possessed more highly developed brains and associated mental capacities than the Neanderthals still remains a matter of intense debate, but experts have pointed to their sophisticated cave paintings and use of spears for hunting as evidence of their innovations.
Prof Mellars added: ‘In any event, it was clearly this range of new technological and behavioural innovations allowed the modern human populations to invade and survive in much larger population numbers than those of the preceding Neanderthals across the whole of the European continent.’
Neanderthals and modern humans shared a common ancestor in Africa. 
Around 400,000 years ago early Neanderthals left Africa and headed for Europe and Asia.
However, our ancestors stayed behind, and evolved into modern humans.
Then, 100,000 years ago, they too left Africa in a wave of migrations.
The two species lived side by side in Europe and Asia for up to 20,000 years until the Neanderthals vanished.
Last year genetic research revealed there was a small amount of inter-breeding, and modern Asians and Europeans have between one and four per cent of Neanderthal DNA.