London - We like to think our superior brainpower led to their demise.
But it seems the real reason the Neanderthals died out may be because they were too clever for their own good.
Researchers say that rather than being outwitted by the superior intellect of modern man, our caveman cousins were every bit as sophisticated. Their brains and charms led to them being sought as mates by our ancestors, who, due to simple numbers, soon began to rule the roost.
Arizona State University academics came up with the theory after running data about life in Europe and Asia during the last Ice Age through a computer program. Neanderthals and modern humans lived alongside each other for thousands of years during that time, before the former became extinct 30,000 years ago.
The study suggests that as the two peoples roamed further in the search for food, the Neanderthals were slowly absorbed by the more numerous modern humans, until they disappeared as a recognisable population.
Researchers said this could only have happened if Neanderthals were as “behaviourally sophisticated” as modern humans.
The theory, published in the journal Human Ecology, fits in with research which found inter-breeding meant up to four percent of the DNA of people living in some parts of the world comes from the stocky cavemen. - Daily Mail