Whatever happened to the Neanderthals?

Humans once shared the Earth with our close relatives the Neanderthals but eventually Homo sapiens would prosper and our cousins would go extinct. So what happened? Sean Smith explains

Neanderthals had a thickened brow ridge and large nose cavities compared to humans (AFP/Getty)

Neanderthals were already an endangered species when our early modern human ancestors migrated into Europe around 45,000 years ago. Just over 5,000 years later, not a single Neanderthal remained. Although we will never know if we were directly responsible for the extinction of our closest human cousins, it’s probably safe to assume we didn’t help.

Since the discovery of their remains in the Neander valley near Dusseldorf, Germany in 1856, Neanderthals have had something on an image problem. Traditionally depicted as little more than advanced apes, it is now believed that our closest cousins had far more in common with us than previously thought. Discoveries have revealed that our relatives were sophisticated, highly evolved hunters capable of making tools and jewellery. In fact, Neanderthal and modern human genomes are 99.7 per cent identical which shouldn’t be that surprising given that we share a common ancestor in Africa just half a million years earlier. In evolutionary terms, that’s a heartbeat.

After the split from our shared ancestor, the line which led to Homo sapiens remained in Africa until comparatively recently, while the ancestors of the Neanderthals were part of a much earlier wave of migration into Eurasia. When the two species were eventually reunited in Europe, 45,000 years ago, one can only wonder if Neanderthals underestimated their new neighbours – these frail apes who were taller, skinnier and jabbering away to each other in an incomprehensible language.