Scientists link Neanderthal extinction to human diseases

[Jim__]

From phys.org:

Growing up in Israel, Gili Greenbaum would give tours of local caves once inhabited by Neanderthals and wonder along with others why our distant cousins abruptly disappeared about 40,000 years ago. Now a scientist at Stanford, Greenbaum thinks he has an answer.

In a new study published in the journal Nature Communications, Greenbaum and his colleagues propose that complex disease transmission patterns can explain not only how modern humans were able to wipe out Neanderthals in Europe and Asia in just a few thousand years but also, perhaps more puzzling, why the end didn't come sooner.

"Our research suggests that diseases may have played a more important role in the extinction of the Neanderthals than previously thought. They may even be the main reason why modern humans are now the only human group left on the planet," said Greenbaum, who is the first author of the study and a postdoctoral researcher in Stanford's Department of Biology.

...

Archeological evidence suggests that the initial encounter between Eurasian Neanderthals and an upstart new human species that recently strayed out of Africa—our ancestors—occurred more than 130,000 years ago in the Eastern Mediterranean in a region known as the Levant.

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[TreasonousBastard]

1. So, we are actually descended from African stock...

and we wiped out those good Aryan ancestors by introducing them to the clap.

[defacto7]

2. Neanderthals are also our ancestors.

It's not "us" wiping "them" out. We intermingled and most us are a product of that intermingling. Pure Neanderthals may have died out for whatever reason and pure homo sapien sapiens continued but the mixture of the two survive to this day and it's most of us. It's strange to me when it's us versus them.

[NNadir]

4. True dat.

[Baitball Blogger]

3. Aliens are looking at this history with interest.

No question we would jeopardize their species, despite their superior intelligence.