Neanderthals and Modern Humans: An Ecological and Evolutionary Perspective (Cambridge Studies in Biological and Evolutionary Anthropology, Series Number 38)

The Neanderthals were a people native to Europe during the Pleistocene period, who became extinct between forty and thirty thousand years ago. Challenging the commonly held view that extinction was caused by the arrival of our ancestors, Clive Finlayson provides evidence that their extinction actually occurred because the Neanderthals could not adapt fast enough to changing ecological and environmental conditions, not their relationship with modern humans. Cover Page......Page 1 Book Info......Page 3 Title Page......Page 5 ISBN 0521820871......Page 6 Contents (with page links)......Page 9 Preface......Page 11 Acknowledgements......Page 12 1 Human evolution in the Pleistocene......Page 13 Vegetation structure......Page 21 Rocky habitats......Page 22 Mosaics: transitional and edge habitats and heterogeneous landscapes......Page 23 Habitat changes in the Quaternary......Page 24 Open habitats and deserts......Page 25 Contrasting equatorial, tropical and sub-tropical Africa, the intermediate mountainous belt and the northern plains......Page 26 The intermediate mountainous belt......Page 27 The Great Eurasian Plain......Page 28 The periphery......Page 29 Proboscideans (Order Proboscidea)......Page 30 Perissodactyls (Order Perissodactyla)......Page 33 Artiodactyls (Order Artiodactyla)......Page 35 Herbivore distribution patterns......Page 41 Mammalian herbivore biogeographical patterns and climate......Page 47 Habitats and landscapes......Page 49 Barriers......Page 50 African beginnings......Page 51 The dynamics of colonisation and extinction......Page 52 The global pattern of colonisation and extinction......Page 57 Central and western Mediterranean Europe and the Eurasian Plain......Page 59 The European case......Page 63 The period 70–0 Myr......Page 65 The period 850–0 kyr......Page 66 The period 90–0 kyr......Page 67 The period 1.7 Myr–850 kyr......Page 68 The period 600–250 kyr......Page 69 The period 150–50 kyr......Page 71 The period 50–0 kyr......Page 72 Extinction events......Page 73 100–50 kyr......Page 74 200–100 kyr......Page 75 Contact between African and European populations......Page 76 Geographical origin of early European Modern Humans......Page 77 The Middle East......Page 78 The Iberian Peninsula......Page 79 The role of the mid-latitude belt......Page 80 Synthesis......Page 81 4 The Modern Human–Neanderthal problem......Page 83 The species problem......Page 85 Sympatry or allopatry?......Page 89 Genes......Page 91 Ecomorphology......Page 94 Patterns......Page 100 Synthesis......Page 102 Food and feeding ecology......Page 106 Predominantly plains species......Page 112 Intermediate species......Page 114 Habitat, landscape and geographical range......Page 116 Home range, group size and related features......Page 125 Technology......Page 131 Symbolic and social behaviour......Page 137 Language......Page 140 Neanderthal–Modern ecological and behavioural differences......Page 141 Synthesis......Page 144 Modern humans......Page 145 The global pattern......Page 147 Temperate and boreal Europe: the Eurasian Plain......Page 150 The Mediterranean......Page 152 Africa......Page 156 Synthesis......Page 157 Humans, climate and environmental change......Page 160 Competition......Page 164 Hybridisation......Page 167 Behavioural differences and cultural exchange......Page 169 Glacial refugia......Page 173 The Iberian refugium......Page 174 The transition in Iberia......Page 184 Instability......Page 205 The Modern Human super-organism......Page 206 8 The survival of the weakest......Page 207 Technological innovation......Page 208 The last glacial maximum......Page 210 The last deglaciation......Page 211 Systems of food production......Page 213 Two alternative ways of being human......Page 217 References......Page 221 Index......Page 261 Back Page......Page 268 "Neanderthals and Modern Humans develops the theme of the close relationship between climate change, ecological change and biogeographical patterns in humans during the Pleistocene. In particular, it challenges the view that Modern Human 'superiority' caused the extinction of the Neanderthals between 40,000 and 30,000 years ago. Clive Finlayson shows that to understand human evolution, the spread of humankind across the world and the extinction of archaic populations we must move away from a purely theoretical evolutionary ecology base and realise the importance of wider biogeographic patterns including the role of tropical and temperate refugia. His proposal is that Neanderthals became extinct because their world changed faster than they could cope with, and that their relationship with the arriving Modern Humans, where they met, was subtle."--Jacket Neanderthals and Modern Humans develops the theme of the close relationship between climate change, ecological change and biogeographical patterns in humans during the Pleistocene. In particular, it challenges the view that Modern Human 'superiority' caused the extinction of the Neanderthals between 40 and 30 thousand years ago. Clive Finlayson shows that to understand human evolution, the spread of humankind across the world and the extinction of archaic populations, we must move away from a purely theoretical evolutionary ecology base and realise the importance of wider biogeographic patterns including the role of tropical and temperate refugia. His proposal is that Neanderthals became extinct because their world changed faster than they could cope with, and that their relationship with the arriving Modern Humans, where they met, was subtle. Neanderthals and Modern Humans, first published in 2004, develops the theme of the close relationship between climate change, ecological change and biogeographical patterns in humans during the Pleistocene. In particular, it challenges the view that Modern Human 'superiority' caused the extinction of the Neanderthals between 40 and 30 thousand years ago. Clive Finlayson shows that to understand human evolution, the spread of humankind across the world and the extinction of archaic populations, we must move away from a purely theoretical evolutionary ecology base and realise the importance of w Why did the Neanderthals go extinct? Were they just out-competed by our own ancestors? This book provides compelling evidence that populations of both species existed side by side for some time, and that it was the Neanderthals' failure to adapt fast enough to changing climatic conditions that sounded their death-knell

Provides evidence that climate change drove Neanderthal extinction, not competition with our own ancestors.