Quote:
Originally Posted by Rockstar
Might better to say they were eventually bred out between 100,000 and 350,000 years ago.
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Plus they likely got
outsmarted. Nutrition science and anthropology say that modern man lived in coastal regions or near rivers and had access to omega-3 fatty acid-enriched foods that made them more clever by growing their brains, while the Neanderthals had not, not to that degree at least. With that came greater intellectual adaptability to the challenges of life that saw Neanderthals more often loosing, compared to homo sapiens.
Our brains have shrunk again meanwhile, too, loosing - if I recall the numbers correctly - around 12% in size/volume over the past I think 15 thousand years or so. With the agricultural revolution 14 thousand years ago began the rise of settlement building and cultural development - at the cost of a general physical degeneration setting in. Skeleton, bone density, jawbone size, stamina, immunity and resilience to desease, brain size - it all declined. Modern Western industrially prcessed foods and carbohydrate-rich food add another acceleration to this degenerative process.
Another factor was climante chnage (:LOL), and that Neaderthals simpy followed their animal foods into the colder regions, because their preferred preys did not like warm climate, but were adapted to the colder climate zones. When the Neanderthals follwoed htem, he moved fiurtehr and further away from potential food alternatives, and when he hhd hunted down all big wildlife, he found himself stranded in regions where food then became scare and hunger started to decimate the Neanderthals.