Competition leads to the extinction of the Neanderthals

In a recent study conducted, a French-American research group with expertise in archeology, climate and ecology has reported that the extinction of the Neanderthals is the result of competition with like CroMagnon, not because of weather changes.

The study, published online in the December 24 issue of the open-access journal PLoS ONE, provides the answer to the controversy over the sudden disappearance of the Neanderthals who resided in Europe in the wake of the like people like us about 40,000 years ago. Under the direction of Dr. William E. Banks, in the center of France de la Recherche Scientifique, the l'Ecole Pratique d'Hautes Etudes and the University of Kansas, the authors made their conclusions by re-using the palanquin. climate at that time and analyzing the distribution of archaeological sites associated with Neanderthals and the first modern human population with the method commonly used to study the impact of change weather for ecological diversity.

This method uses geographic locations with archaeological sites dating to carbon radioactivity, along with past climate models for that period, and uses algorithms to analyze relationships. between two types of data to reconstruct the area in which each segment resides and determine whether climate conditions play a role in these areas. In other words, by combining archaeological and archaeological data, the prediction method can reconstruct an area where an ancient population division may have resided. By repeating this simulation hundreds of times and evaluating errors that occur, this method can provide predictions about the areas where different human civilizations once lived.

Map of predicting conditions suitable for Neanderthals (A - pre - H4, C - H4, E - GI8) and AMH (B - pre - H4, D - H4, F - GI8) . The squares with 1 - 5 of 10 models predict the appearance of suitable gray weather conditions, squares with models 6—9 pink, and squares with all 10 models available. Red. Archaeological sites are marked with circles. (Photo: Banks WE, d'Errico F, Peterson AT, Kageyama M, Sima A, et al. (2008) Neanderthal Extinction by Competitive Exclusion PLoS ONE 3 (12): e3972: 10.1371 / journal.pone.0003972 )

This modeling method also allows the prediction of archaeological traces of a civilization to the field conditions of a later climate stage - by comparing this prediction to the survey sites. In the later stages, scientists could determine whether the ecoregion that the human body had used remained the same, or that it was shrinking or expanding during that period.

Comparing those reconstructed areas with the Neanderthals and modern humans in each climate period and placing each of those areas in later periods later, Banks and colleagues determined that the Neanderthal The possibility remains the same in Europe during a period when less harsh climatic conditions are called Greenland Interstadial 8 (GI8).

However, archaeological data shows that this does not happen, and the Neanderthal disappearance begins when we see the geographical expansion of the modern group in GI8.The researchers' model follows that the limited territory to the south of modern people near the Ebro River Valley in northern Spain, and this southern border gradually moves southward during the late moderate GI8.

Scientists conclude that the Neanderthals who once lived in southern Spain were the last survivors because they avoided direct competition with modern humans because the two ethnic groups occupied separate territories. in cold climate H4. They also point out that contact between Neanderthals and modern humans facilitates cultural and genetic exchanges.

Refer:

Banks WE, d'Errico F, Peterson AT, Kageyama M, Sima A, et al.Extinction by Competitive Exclusion.PLoS ONE, 2008;3 (12): e3972 DOI: 10.1371 / journal.pone.0003972