Wednesday, July 08, 2009

Neanderthals killed off by H1N1

Yet another theory.

Scientists seeking to uncover the mystery of what happened to the Neanderthals should look to the modus operandi of another great die-off 30,000 years later, argues a Danish expert in an article submitted to the Journal of Archaeological Science.

In the article, professor emeritus Bent Sørensen of the University of Roskilde wrote that disease carried by Homo sapiens migrating out of Africa was responsible for the gradual extinction of our prehistoric cousins in the same way that European illnesses ravaged Native American populations in the sixteenth century.

‘Modern humans brought illnesses they could survive themselves, but for Neanderthals they were deadly,’ Sørensen said.


Read more here.

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