The Neanderthals disappear
After 400,000 years in Europe, the last Neanderthals vanish within a few thousand years of our arrival.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 1 thousand years
- Known to
- ± 2 thousand years
- Era
- Late Pleistocene, Quaternary
The youngest reliably dated Neanderthal remains are around 40,000 years old, and the disappearance follows the spread of modern humans across Europe closely enough that competition is hard to dismiss — though direct violence is not evidenced. Proposed contributing factors include small fragmented populations with low genetic diversity, inbreeding, disease exchange, climatic instability and simple demographic swamping. Most likely no single cause: a population already thin and fragmented, absorbed and outcompeted.