Did a Massive Volcanic Cataclysm Drive Neanderthals to Extinction?

Although humans and Neanderthals lived at the same time, the Neanderthals went extinct. Now, scientists are taking a closer look at the decline of the Neanderthals to see whether a massive volcanic cataclysm in Europe about 40,000 years ago may be partially to blame.

The Campanian Ignimbrite (CI) eruption in Italy coincided with the final decline of Neanderthals as well as dramatic territorial and cultural advances among modern humans. Because of this, researchers have long debated whether this eruption may have contributed to Neanderthal's decline.

In order to find out, the researchers created climate simulations for the time period. They found that the largest temperature decreases after the eruption occurred in Eastern Europe and Asian and sidestepped the areas where the final Neanderthal populations were living in Western Europe. This means that the eruption wasn't to blame for the extinction of the Neanderthals.

That said, the abrupt cold spell following the eruption would still have significantly impacted day-to-day life for the Neanderthals and early humans in Europe. Temperatures would have decreased by an average of two to four degrees Celsius during the year following the eruption. These conditions may have direction influenced Neanderthal survival and anatomically modern humans.

The findings reveal that although the eruption may not have directly caused the extinction of the Neanderthals, temperatures may have contributed to their decline. This reveals a bit more about this species and shows what might have led to their eventual disappearance.

The findings are published in the journal Geology.

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