1.0   Died of a cold?

    Stringer argues that the Neanderthals disappeared because they couldn't adapt to a relatively sudden
    drop in temperatures that swept across Europe 30,000 years ago. Others seem to share his view. [1]
    Neanderthal had survived previous waves, but this one was a bit too severe for him. Stringer has
    dedicated considerable time and efforts making his theory known in the literature.

    It really doesn't take much to debunk his lame argument, and this explains in large measure why
    comparatively few of his colleagues subscribe to his proposal. [2] Stringer simply has no other answer
    for extinction. He is reluctant to believe in Trinkaus's 'love' story or in Tattersall's 'war' theory, and this
    is the only other choice that makes some sense to him.

    Let's briefly run through the arguments against drastic climate change:

    •        the Mastodon and the Woolly Mammoth outlived Neanderthal
    •        Neanderthal used fire.
    •        Neanderthal could have migrated
    •        humans live naked in sub-zero weather
    •        Neanderthal was already in demographic remission before the alleged cold front
    •        there is no evidence of starving animals
    •        the Neanderthals made their last stand in sunny Spain

    Perhaps the most compelling evidence against the amusing 'cold' theory is the spartan life lived by
    certain Fuegian tribes in the 19th Century. Captain Fitzroy, of Beagle fame, documented that the natives
    of Tierra del Fuego subsisted on scarce resources and with little or no clothes in sub-zero temperatures.
    (pp. 137-139)  [3]  Tekeenica women dived in winter into the waters of the straits to gather shells or collect
    fish that the men had harpooned. (p. 186)  [4]  These hunter-gatherers were hairless (p. 137) [5] and went
    around barefooted (p. 138) [6]! Neanderthal was short, stocky, and probably had a comparable difference
    in fat with Cro-Magnon as the Mastodon and Woolly had to a modern elephant. Like his contemporaries,
    the Mastodon and Woolly, Neanderthal was suited for Arctic climates. This was his natural habitat. He
    had been conditioned to resist freezing temperatures for thousands of years. Neanderthal was as
    immune to ice and snow as a polar bear. Neanderthal was certainly better adapted to freezing
    temperatures than any human ever was or could be. [7] But assuming he wasn't, Neanderthal never
    faced Arctic temperatures anyways:

    " The short limbs and massive trunk, which would conserve body heat, were probably an
       adaptive response to the mostly glacial climatic conditions under which the Neanderthals
       evolved. Among living humans, such features particularly characterize Arctic peoples. The
       Neanderthals had even more massive trunks and shorter limbs, yet never faced true Arctic
       cold." [8]

    Nevertheless, Neanderthal had access to and used fire. If the cold didn't kill Woolly or the Mastodon,
    why would it annihilate the more resourceful Neanderthal? Woolly and other less well-adapted animals
    (including Cro-Magnon) outlived Neanderthal, in the case of Woolly by well over 10,000 years! Stringer
    and his friends have really got to be kidding!

    Another obstacle that this theory needs to overcome is speed. Glaciers and snow are known to move
    slower than snails, a fact that most paleontologists and anthropologists have trouble grasping. Birds
    and butterflies, in particular, are not as stupid as our scholars. Whenever the winter insinuates, they
    fly south. It’s just that simple. Not a single species since the Cambrian could have been wiped out by
    temperature! Certainly, not Quetzalcoatlus! If the going got rough, Neanderthal could have easily
    migrated south together with the Mastodons and Woollies and everyone else desperately stampeding
    out of the way of the chilly avalanche.

    It is difficult to believe that the Neanderthal survived 200,000 or 300,000 years of extreme weather just to
    succumb to glaciers at this particular time as Stringer suggests. There is absolutely no further scientific
    justification for Nature and Science Journals or any publishing house to sell Neanderthal extinction
    theories related to climate change. This is no longer science. It is commercialism at its worst. Unless
    Stringer can provide foolproof evidence that Neanderthal died under a snow storm, he should publicly
    confess that he has been wrong all these years. Nothing less will purge his professional honor. He has
    made money peddling a theory that has no chance of being true. I personally don't believe that he
    believes his own theory.


    2.0   The role climate plays in extinctions

    The anthropologists and paleontologists have always misconstrued the role of climate and environment
    in extinctions. These factors first have no chance of selectively killing one species while leaving others
    unscathed. Climate never killed a single species in the history of life on Earth! The relevant role of climate
    and environment is at the next step, as a mechanism to determine which species will rule once the big
    guys are out of the way! Climate change becomes a factor only after a mass extinction. When the last of
    the hominids becomes extinct, environmental variables such as the depleted ozone, the pollution and
    smog, the greenhouse, and the skyscrapers and highways that we leave behind will simply determine
    who will be the new king. Therefore, any theory related to climate change is moot. Any paleontologist or
    archeologist that claims that climate killed a single species in the history of life on Earth deserves to be
    kicked out of science and condemned to wear a dunce cap upon his head.
C. Stringer et al., Climatic stress and the extinction of the Neanderthals, 233-240, T. van Andel, W. Davies, eds.
The mighty
hunter that
caught
a cold
Adapted for the Internet from:

Why God Doesn't Exist
Chill Bill
sharing the cold, hard facts about Neanderthal


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