Modern humans would also have been likely to triumph in any conflicts between the two species because of their larger and more coordinated social groups, researchers said.
The explanation could solve the mystery of why Neanderthals were unable to compete with modern humans despite having flourished in the icy landscape of central and western Europe for the previous 300,000 years.
A study of archaeological evidence from a large concentration of Neanderthal and early modern human sites in the south-west of France showed for the first time that the earliest modern human populations must have arrived in far greater numbers than native groups.
Scientists from Cambridge University noticed a sudden increase in the number and size of occupied sites, as well as relics like tools and animal food remains, which suggested modern humans lived in much larger and more integrated social groups.
Writing in the Science journal, the researchers said humans also had more sophisticated hunting equipment, better means of storing and preserving food through the long, freezing winters, and better trade links with neighbouring communities.
Experts are divided over whether modern humans had more developed brains than Neanderthals, but it is thought they had more sophisticated forms of language.
Professor Sir Paul Mellars, who led the study, said: “It was clearly this range of new technological and behavioural innovations which allowed the modern human populations to invade and survive in much larger population numbers than those of the preceding Neanderthals across the whole of the European continent.
More at The Telegraph
No comments:
Post a Comment