Why Are Neanderthals Extinct? 

Of course everything I said in the video is subject to radical change as more evidence comes forward. Do you think they're extinct? If so, which cause do you find the most plausible? Any you think I missed?

My uncle was a Neanderthal but he converted to orthodox Denisovan.

"The Neanderthal body type has disappeared." The difficulties I have buying a suit would beg to differ!

Forest looks so epic. Jealous

They're not extinct. They retired on their riches from a string of popular Geico commercials.

Neanderthals lived through numerous climate swings and in different environment so I doubt it was climate.

Stefan I gotta say man you've quickly become a favorite of mine. I hope these neanderthal videos keep coming, they've been the focus of my studies lately and your videos are very informative. Cheers!

In the Soviet Union there was a persistent tale of a Neanderthal village on the far edge of the Gobi Desert. I know several journalists who went looking for it.

I find it amazing that this channel isn't so well known yet. He should have at least 10x more subs than he has now. I'll be sharing and showing everybody, by the end of the year this man deserves to be verified already.

Fantastic video! Most interesting and learned more new material about the Neanderthals than I have in a while. The 4000 calorie fact was a real shock and seems to me it must have played a role. That is a LOT of food if you are hunting it or gathering it every day. Especially if under other pressures and not able to adapt quickly to other food forces. Well done! ... Except shaving the stache off ... ;-).

I really liked your series on Neanderthals! As a New Zealander of European descent who loves rugby, hunting and fishing, I some how feel strangely connected to our lost cousins...

0:28 it's SO true! Your mustache was coming along just fine, then all of a sudden... It was just gone! No explanation. We were left to pick up the peices on our own. Many men have theories. But will we ever really know?

favorite channel on youtube. keep the vids coming

Really happy to have discovered your channel! Thanks Stefan 🤘🏻

Its really exciting to think about what we'll learn as anthropology and archeology advances

Excellent, as usual. Nicely done, sir!

It's really cool practicing listening with your videos. I'm from Colombia, but, I really like study and have knowledge about anthropology.

The real question is: Could Neanderthals’ grow mustaches of similar magnificence? I feel like the answer to this question would get us closer to the understanding the mystery of their extinction

Who said they went extinct? I see one in the mirror every now & then.

Enjoyed the production value of this video - keep it up!

Loved your 37K y/o Neanderthal footage. Great find! Clearly this proves the immense intellect of our long-lost cousins. On a serious note, what might RH- have played in limiting viable offspring w/modern humans?

Woah I didn't know this channel existed, but I'm very lucky to have stumbled across this one!

I was wondering about this topic yesterday. Well timed!

i LOVE your channel. Thanks so much. Looking forward to making my through your videos. The general topic of pre-agricultural humans, I find utterly fascinating and compelling. Cheers!

Excellent stuff. Are you suggesting that the McDonald's menu is best suited to Neaderthal's, if so constant feasting on Big Mac's may encourage the traces of Neanderthal DNA to mutate and become dominant, a new sub species would evolve called Ronaldovians wearing orange wigs!

This channel is so underrated.

I say it was likely a mix of factors. On top of the sudden change in climate, around that time a lot of their choice food sources like Wolly Rhinos and other megafauna were also becoming less common. And they needed *a lot* of calories in comparison to AMH to survive. Their brains were bigger, their bodies had prominent muscle definition, a less efficient gait (in males at least), denser bones which added weight and slowed healing. They also hunted large game and generally lived very, very active lifestyles. All of this was pretty calorically expensive and only possible because they were usually able to find enough to eat. Once the temperature dropped and more of their prey dissapeared it probably got much harder. This meant smaller populations which although they had always been pretty isolated, became even more so. Inbreeding seems to have become a problem around that time. You can see this in the rising rates of congenital defects like bone malformations in later specimens. Then, when we consider competition from the east (Denisovans) and south (AMH) it starts to make sense. They were already dying off when we came on the scene, and any who survived stuck with AMH and Denisovans. Living and interbreeding with them until eventually they were absorbed into the gene pool and vanished. Kind of a tragedy if you think about it. Maybe having another sapient species to interact with would make us feel less...lonely here in this crazy existence.

Another great video. I'm binging on them. You do a fantastic job explaining all this.

This series was so fascinating. Thank you for all your research, and for sharing it with us. My opinion on their extinction is that it was a combination of all three. A failure to adapt to the climate change and the appearance of modern man. On a side note, I have seen several people (mostly on tv) that have a VERY pronounced brow ridge. I mean so pronounced that it immediately made me think of the Neanderthal morphology. I wonder if the tiny bit of Neanderthal DNA that some people carry occasionally pops up. Or is this particular facial feature just another example of Homo Sapiens diversities solely within our own species.

Really good info and fun to watch!

Would be very interesting to have a brief overview of all the different migrations of settlement into Europe, from the Auringnacians all the way up to the IndoEuropeans

Great video!

I think the bigger mystery is why the archaeological and anthroplogical community is discussing the disappearance of your mustache. Lol. Love your videos.

Your videos are get better and better (and they were good to begin with). Fantastic stuff. You contribute to public education in a very good way. Thanks!

Soooo curious about Neanderthals! I’d just love to hear more details about their technologies, especially the discovery of pitch-making from birch bark, more details about artifacts found adjacent to their habitats. Thoughts about their feather collections? Waiting, waiting for a comprehensive book that discusses all the new findings... new discoveries regarding tooth plaque, which show Neanderthals ate plants (and processed), etc., as well as hunt. It would great to hear about certain abstract representations found in conjunction with their habitations.

It’s fascinating to discover how we got to where we are. You have to admire how we diversified and adapted.

Sex, interbreeding is the main reason why Neanderthals went 'extinct' but in many ways they live on within us and the process is continuous!

Very interesting. Concise too. I like the clear and sober exposition of possibilities.

Gérard Depardieu ate them.....after all.....there can only be one!

I think you are a great educator brother! Thank you for all the work you do.

Aquatic ape theory, do that next, yes, yes, next is when you should do it, the aquatic ape theory.

I think the most realistic explanation is the combination of environmental changes that gradually made their food-sources dwindle. Homo Sapiens is said to have switched to agriculture when the ice-age reduced their food-sources, so if neanderthals weren't able to make that transition; either because they lacked the mental development or because the nutrition of early grains wasn't enough to sustain them, it would explain why they died out, while other hominids in the same period survived.

Looking all young and fresh-faced without your facial fur..LOL! I tend to lean toward the cause of neanderthal's decline into extinction being their need for more calories, I also read that they had a very carnivorous diet, whereas we were omnivores, making us better able to pull through times of famine...a little piece of them lives on in many of us, which I find endearing. I have always been so fascinated by them.... *great vid" 👍

Beautiful editing and stock shots!

Stefan...This has been fascinating. Here are a couple of thoughts on Neanderthal development. I suspect that their skulls give a clue. Their skulls have a larger capacity, but not in the same shape. I think that their eye sockets and nose aperture suggest that they had larger eyes*, and larger noses with nose holes facing out (instead of ours facing down). So one part of the brain was processing much more information than we can process (think dogs, whose sense of smell amazes us). Maybe that part of the brain was in the back, where they had an overhang some call a bun. But they had less on top - the cerebral cortex.. I have read elsewhere that they had a smaller social circle, that is, they were in contact with fewer people than modern humans. And I have read that they hadn't domesticated dogs. Now, there is a bone that anthropologists claim demonstrates that they had speech. But maybe that was just for sound-making, and that they lacked the brain function to develop sound-making into communication. Modern humans had that cerebral cortex that allowed for spoken communications to develop (OK, a noise can communicate, but having words is more nuanced hence more sophisticated). That cerebral cortex also delivered the brain power to maintain relations with more others, and together Sapiens were more organized, in hunting food and in conflict with Neanderthals. Training dogs to help in hunting, along with weapons development, probably contributed to more efficient hunting and war-making. You have this hunting machine, the descendants of thousands of years of meat-eating (not much gathering in the ice age), larger than us, much more muscular, without the strategy-making part of the brain development, facing off against modern humans. They probably won the first round, killing the men and taking the women (hence the % DNA) but after time the Sapiens return having learned how to adapt and defeat Neanderthals. So they lost later rounds, retreated and finally disappeared when their (virginal) immune systems couldn't compete. Finally, Sapiens brought domesticated animals and farming. Those things are elements of civilization (you can sit and make pottery or play the lute if you don't have to always chase your next meal) but they also bring communicable diseases. Over time Sapiens became immune via selection, but just like the Europeans entering the Western Hemisphere after Columbus, they annihilated the opposition with diseases for which Neanderthals had no genetic response. *The soft tissue, brain, nose, eyes, do not survive like bones. So I will speculate! Their eyes were larger than ours, and perhaps had powers our eyes don't have, but powers (say, much better night vision) that would have been naturally selected for small groups of hominids hunting mastodons and other gigantic fierce prey. Front-facing nose holes would also benefit a hunting machine. And the brain supported these organs and a sensorium very much different than Sapiens.

I'd like to know more about this volcano's impact on the populations . And more about which genes from Neanderthals survived in our gene pool and which genes died out. Great videos!

What if the first humans in Europe didn’t just bring their cool artefacts but some fabulous new diseases that they themselves had built up some immunity to?

Howdy Stefan ! Yur videos are very informative & challenge the human brain about what exactly happened all those millions of years ago -- p.s. -- I miss the Mic-Spoon !! It was definitely Yu !

Well OBVIOUSLY they just developed flying saucers and decided to move to a better neighborhood. We don't find archaeological evidence of the early development of flying saucers because they were made out of wicker. These became the basis for the Babylonian description of Noah's Ark as a giant coracle, of course. [And yet, this is not the craziest thing you will read on the Internet today.]

Great video and the knowledge obtained from it was appreciated!

not totally sure that Neanderthals are extinct. I've met certain people who would fit the description of Neanderthals precisely. uncannily similar to them.

“Diversity results in an advantage” is a great topic.

It's hard for me to call them extinct when I carry their genes.

I SOOO appreciate your videos!!! They are interesting, informative & humorous. Keep doing it & being you! I really learn a lot when I watch them!

I have 205 Neanderthal variants in my DNA. They are not extinct. They live on in all of us

Love your videos - especially the humour. Your easy speaking style and mannerisms remind me of the guy who does the Veritasium videos. You could be brothers! Anyway, you seem like a chill guy and that's what makes you likeable. Keep up the good work. :)

Yeah, that huge volcanic eruption in Italy basically just left Neanderthals alive in Spain and Western France, well upwind, where, go figure, the last Neanderthals were found. I've often wondered if the level of androgen and other hormones associated with their muscular physiques just made them more aggressive, territorial, and warlike, and less cooperative, which would explain their complete lack of trading networks. If they tended to fight with their neighbours, not trade with them, and every time large groups of Sapiens migrated into Neanderthal areas they were attacked by smaller, localized groups of male Neanderthals who were used to automatically attacking anyone on their territory, the survivors of the volcano would have slowly been supplanted.

Really enjoy your vids. I have been studying this subject (Human development and migration; at an amateur level of course) for a couple of years now and am fascinated by it. I really appreciate the straightforward, uncomplicated way you explain things for people like me, without an advanced degree ( or any degree for that matter) in anything. I have a particular interest in the subject of where and when did the split between Neandertals and Denisovans happen. Also, what was the process by which the various racial groupings occurred? My interest is solely curiosity, no social, political or cultural agenda here. Keep up the good work!

The diabetes argument is, I would argue, not relevant as sub Saharan Africa’s are very prone to it also.

Props to the cameraman (or cameraperson to be PC) for going back 37,000 years to get that awesome HD footage!

Stefan: Why didn't you include the supervolano eruption of Mount Toba 75,000 years ago as part of the Climate reasons? I was unaware of the Italian eruption 39,000 yrs ago, but the Mt. Toba eruption caused a population bottleneck in both Sapiens in Africa and Neanderthals in Europe/Asia. At least some researchers think it caused the Neanderthals so much loss of population that they would no longer be able to repel the incoming Sapiens from out of Africa. The theory also suggests that the population loss from Mt. Toba was the major reason for the inbreeding among Neanderthals that left them vulnerable to the incoming Sapiens.

Stefan, I watch your videos since the operation Oddyseus and I can say your channel is gonna explode soon. Just believe in YT algorithm :D Also can you make a video about why friggin South Africa skipped Bronze age and straight advanced to Iron age? Is it hax?

4:54 "Genuine Footage" Killer!

This channel is criminally underrated.

"No one has the Neanderthal body shape anymore" Me: I beg to differ

A wonderful video and totally fascinating. Really enjoyed it and learned a great deal. Will certainly be watching more. Thx.

Questions that I have are 1. Where did the Aurignacian people come from originally? (besides Africa. I mean like what route out of Africa did they take, like did they live in the middle east for a while then go to Europe or did they cross the Mediterranean etc... 2. Did the Gravettian people meet up with and conquer the Aurignacian or was the Gravettian just the next technological/cultural phase of the same Aurignacian populace? 3. Did the Gravettian come from the same place or along the exact same route as the Aurignacian had thousands of years earlier? 4. Do people still carry the DNA of Aurignacian and Gravettian people, maybe Basque people? 5. Did the Aurignacian and Gravettian people look different from each other? OR were they related?

Baaahaaahaaahaaa....I love that sweet sweet genuine 37,000 year old footage.....I love you so much Stefan! Wish you had more subs

Bring back Milostache 2020

Great series, I'm glad it works well. Thank you, learned a lot thanks to you as I'm not an anthropologist or a paleontologist at all I didn't know about their shortest life expectancy, maybe that's an interesting lead when facing heavy competition. And so many calories!

Apart from homo sapiens' far superior cultural capabilities starting with much more sohisticated tool making, you left out a trait of modern man that I think is crucial, and that is our ability to form and maintain group relations far beyond the 120 or so individuals that our brain capacity might suggest. Neanderthals lived in groups of around thirty, you said. Well, we form nations of many million people and have done so for thousands of years. I read about long distance trading among very early homo sapiens populations that was never found in any way among Neanderthals.

Thank you for using genuine footage

I don't know how DNA analysis works but I haven't seen a reference to inbreeding in the ancestry of the Denisovan child .. can you post a link?

Great channel

There’s historical Bigfoot type stories all over Eurasia of strange hairy man like creatures living alongside humans so perhaps there were still some a few thousand years ago.

This is great man! I’m glad I found your channel !

From what ive read about neanderthals and their characteristics, all of those characteristics fall within the range of "modern humans". Neanderthals were just humans with cold climate characteristics that made them seem different from the humans coming from warmer climates. This is true today, we have humans with different characteristics based on geography. Higher lung capacity in peoples living in the peruvian highlands, stocky build in artic people, tall people in the sudan. "Modern" humans back in neanderthal times had thicker bones like neanderthals did. We have madd a mistake in classifying neanderthals as a different species

Thank you for that interesting video.

4:52 Of obviously original footage from 37,000 ya. Its only 16 frames per second

You make anthropology/archeology interesting. More Neanderthal, please!

They are not, they live on in our DNA

Love your videos, bro

I have less than 4% of Neanderthal DNA ( 278 variants ) according to 23andMe... and even if that's small it makes me kind of proud for some strange reason ! lol Maybe you should try a big "yeard"... ( don't shave for a year ) next ? lol

Many bones of Neanderthals found in caves showed that they were very inbreed and had almost all of them same parents, grand parents and were affected by trisomy. Very weak bones, like Toutenkamon. And many other disabilities. Very depressed too, we inherited the gene of depression from them.

Why you lyin'? you ain't in the woods bruh. that's a green screen.

Just saying, I very much enjoy your videos even when I don't necessarily agree. You present good points, and make me think on a different level.

Pseudospeciation of Neandertals is pretty much a racist discrimination. Two primates sexually producing fertile offspring are the same species. By definition. Get over it. Some people were stronger, maybe a little Mayan in skull shape, and apparently went after large game up close and personal. Quite exhilarating. They painted those caves in France 40-120,000 years ago. They may be the lost architects of all the megalithic structures and foundations all around the world. Perhaps they are the Atlantians of history. Might have built the pyramids and carved the 1st Sphinx by the Nile. Don't discriminate against the Neandertal. It's just as racist as black Africans hating white Africans or vice versa. All are humans. Stop with the antiscience terminology. It reminds me of German phrenology. Please.

Love your videos! Thanks.

I like this guy just as much as David Attenborough. He should have a big tv show contract. Maybe he will someday.

This videos are so well made👍

Hi from me, in Ljubljana, where the bone flute is kept. 🇸🇮

Awesome. I love your videos!

Great compilation of theories, it helped at least me to understand what may have caused this extinction. There are though two brothers at my gym i´m not entierly sure about.

I think you probably nailed it. Great video.

I'm a type 2 diabetic and 3.28% Neanderthal according to "Ancient Calculator" and Ancestry DNA. Can't get enough meat, climate change and competition feels like a compelling combo for their demise after the Italian volcano disaster which wiped out a large percentage of sapiens too. Thank heavens for global warming!

You can't do this to your audience! Making the first two videos with such a glorious moustache just to greet us on the last one with such a barren empty face.... :p ps.Great videos!

I watched your series on Neanderthals and you've earned sub

GREAT, As Usual.

Bravissimo!

Great overview and I have 4 of those Grey Ghosts! Love that dog!