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| A reconstructed Neanderthal with a modern human girl. |
Neanderthals in Germany Went Extinct Right After Their Population Peak. By Ginger Perales. New Historian, July 25, 2016.
Neanderthals in Germany: First population peak, then sudden extinction. ScienceDaily, July 21, 2016.
Leave at the height of the party: A critical review of the Middle Paleolithic in Western Central Europe from itsbeginnings to its rapid decline. By Jürgen Richter. Quaternary International, available online, April 12, 2016.
Perales:
Approximately 45,000 years ago, Homo neanderthalensis was the dominant human species in Europe, populating the whole of the continent. Although archaeologists have discovered numerous settlements in Germany, they have also uncovered evidence which shows that Neanderthal populations there came to an unexplained, sudden end.
Based
on the analysis of several archaeological sites, Jürgen Richter (Collaborative
Research Center 806 — Our Way to Europe), has concluded that shortly after
Neanderthals reached their peak population in Germany, their numbers rapidly
declined, leading to their extinction.
Neanderthals
lived during the Middle Paleolithic, the time between 200,000 and 40,000 years
ago. Richter’s research suggests that over 50 percent of the identified
Neanderthal settlements in Germany specifically date back to between 60,000 and
43,000 years ago. Therefore, the peak Neanderthal population lies within this
period.
Neanderthals
were an ancient human species, part of the genus Homo, that became extinct approximately 40,000 years ago. With
99.5% of the same DNA, they’re closely related to modern humans. Bone and stone
tools left by Neanderthals have been found throughout Eurasia, in western to
central Europe, and northern and western Asia. Their species is generally
classified as Homo neanderthalensis,
believed to have separated from Homo
sapiens around 600,000 years ago. Some experts however, believe
Neanderthals were a subspecies of Homo
sapiens and therefore should be classified as Homo sapiens neanderthalensis.
The
number of Neanderthal sites, as well as the analysis of artifacts discovered in
them, indicate the Neanderthal population in Germany were subjected to extreme
demographic changes. For example, during the Middle Paleolithic there seem to
have been numerous migrations, increases and declines in population, even
extinctions in certain locations followed by a return of settlers.
During
the time period between 110,000 and 70,000 years ago there were only four
identified Neanderthal settlement sites in Germany, however, during the
following period between 70,000 and 43,000 years ago there were ninety-four.
Less than 1,000 years later, after this peak in population, there was a rapid
decrease and the Neanderthals disappeared. Why the species went extinct is
still unknown. It may have been the result of decreased genetic diversity;
another possibility is competition for resources with the growing number of Homo sapiens.
Around
55,000 years ago, the climate began to fluctuate back and forth from extremely
cold to milder cold conditions in the span of a few decades. Neanderthals had
bodies that were well suited for surviving in cold climates, with stocky limbs
and barrel chests that stored body heat much better than Cro-Magnons (the first
early modern humans). However, these rapid climate fluctuations also caused
ecological changes that the Neanderthals could not easily adapt to; familiar
animals and plants would have been replaced by completely new ones within the
space of a lifetime, and the Neanderthals’ ambush hunting technique wouldn’t
have worked as trees replaced the grasslands. Neanderthals eventually went
extinct in Europe between 41,000 and 39,000 years ago, coinciding with a period
of extreme cold.
