By Richard Ingham
Paris - New evidence has emerged that Neanderthals co-existed with anatomically modern humans for at least a thousand years in central France - a finding that suggests these enigmatic hominids came to a tragic and lingering end.
Few chapters in the rise of Homo sapiens sapiens, as modern mankind is known, have triggered as much debate as the fate of the Neanderthals.
Smaller and squatter than H. sapiens but with larger brains, Neanderthals lived in Europe, parts of central Asia and the Middle East for around 170 000 years.
But vestiges of the Neanderthals stop between 28 000 and 30 000 years ago.
At that point, H. sapiens, a smart, ascendant sub-species of humans originating in East Africa, became the undisputed master of the planet.
So whatever happened to the Neanderthals?
One intriguing school of thought is that the Neanderthals did not suddenly disappear off the map but in fact gradually melded in with H. sapiens, culturally - and possibly sexually.
Interbreeding resulted, meaning that what we, today, supposedly carry some of the genetic legacy of the Neanderthals.
But a new study delivers a blow to this storyline.
It shows that the two hominids did indeed co-exist for a long time, but there is no evidence of any intermingling.
Indeed, it points to the likelihood that the Neanderthals petered out, their lineage sadly expiring in starvation and Ice-Age cold.
Paul Mellars, a professor of prehistory and human evolution at the University of Cambridge, and colleagues dated bone fossils preserved by French archaeologists who carefully excavated layers of soil at a site called "La Grotte Aux Fees" (the Fairy Grotto).
The cave, located at Chatelperron between the valleys of the Loire and Allier, is already famous as a Neanderthal habitat.
But what makes the site especially interesting is that bone artefacts and flints bearing the typical hallmarks of prehistoric H. sapiens were also found there.
Mellars' team applied the modern tool of radiocarbon dating to get a precise idea of the age of the bone tools and compared these to the soil layers in which they were found and knowledge of the climate that prevailed at the time.
What they found: Neanderthals lived in the cave between roughly 40 000 and 38 000 years ago, when the climate was, for the last Ice Age, relatively balmy.
Then came a sudden and prolonged cold snap, when the temperature dropped by as much as 8°C, and Homo sapiens - apparently migrating southwards in search of warmer climes - inhabited the cave for about 1 000 to 1 500 years.
Thereafter, the climate slightly warmed again.
At that point, H. sapiens moved out and the Neanderthals returned, staying for a period that went from about 36 500 years ago to 35 000 years ago. After that, there is no more sign of them.
"This is the first categorical proof that Neanderthals and modern human beings did overlap in France for more than a thousand years," Mellars told reporters.
And, he added, it was also convincing evidence of the Neanderthals' vulnerability to climate change and to the rise of smarter, more adaptable rivals.
"People point out that Neanderthals were biologically better adapted to living in glacial conditions than modern humans, that they were built a bit like eskimos and were better anatomically at coping with cold conditions, whereas modern humans came in from Africa, where they evolved with bodies that were taller and thinner and did not conserve heat so well.
"Yet the evidence is here that modern humans could cope with cold conditions better than the Neanderthals, thanks to culture and technology, for instance with better clothing, better fire control and perhaps better shelters."
Mellars says that, for long periods, Neanderthal and H. sapiens probably lived near each other.
But, he says, no evidence has been found of cultural interaction and DNA tests on samples taken from 1 000 Europeans have failed to find any evidence of Neanderthal genes.
In short, the indicators point to the likelihood that H. sapiens crushed or ousted the Neanderthals in the fight to survive.
"The extinction of the Neanderthals is due partly to climatic downturn but above all, I think, to competition for territory, firewood and animal populations at a time of extreme cold and when resources were scarce," suggests Mellars. - Sapa-AFP