Download The Invaders: How Humans and Their Dogs Drove Neanderthals to Extinction AudioBook Free
Around 200,000 years ago, as modern humans started to radiate out from their evolutionary birthplace in Africa, Neanderthals were already growing in Europe - descendants of a much early on migration of the African genus Homo. But when modern humans eventually made their way to Europe 45,000 years ago, Neanderthals all of a sudden vanished. Ever since the first Neanderthal bone fragments were recognized in 1856, scientists have been vexed by the question: Why performed modern humans endure while their evolutionary cousins proceeded to go extinct? The Invaders musters engaging evidence showing that the major element in the Neanderthals' demise was immediate competition with newly arriving humans. Sketching on insights from the field of invasion biology, Pat Shipman traces the destructive impact of a growing human population: reduction of Neanderthals' geographic range, isolation into small communities, and loss of genetic diversity. But modern humans were not the only real invaders who competed with Neanderthals for big game. Shipman shows fascinating confirmation of humans' collaboration with the first domesticated wolf-dogs soon after Neanderthals first started to disappear. This alliance between two predator species, she hypothesizes, made possible an unprecedented degree of success in hunting large Ice Years mammals - a definite and eventually decisive gain for humans over Neanderthals at a time when weather change made both communities vulnerable.
