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THE NEANDERTHALS were a type of primitive man who lived throughout much of Europe and western Asia for more than 200,000 years, but who disappeared less than 28,000 years ago. It is not known why they vanished and the latest thinking on this mystery is summarised by Kate Wong in Scientific American, August 2009. Climate change may have played a major part in the demise of the Neanderthals.

Two opposing hypotheses have vied to explain the relationship of Neanderthals to Homo sapiens. One proposed that Neanderthals were an archaic variety of our species that either evolved into or was assimilated by modern Homo sapiens. The other hypothesis proposed that Neanderthals were a separate species, Homo neanderthalensis, that were eliminated when modern humans entered their territory. Recent analysis of DNA recovered from Neanderthal remains shows little evidence of interbreeding with modern humans even though Neanderthals survived for 15,000 years after modern humans arrived in Europe a little over 40,000 years ago.