this post was submitted on 01 Oct 2025
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[–] pupbiru@aussie.zone 9 points 3 days ago (1 children)

especially considering neanderthals were made extinct largely because of things like violence with homo sapiens, disease introduced by homo sapiens, the relationship (or lack thereof) with dogs, and climate change whilst the competitive advantages around social and cognitive development are relatively slight

[–] ronl2k@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Neanderthals went extinct because they couldn't survive the ice age of 40,000 years ago. Unlike homo-sapiens, they never learned to sew, so they couldn't make tighter-fitting fur clothing to keep warm. They mostly wore loose-fitting animal hides.

[–] plyth@feddit.org 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Ice wasn't everywhere. The sewing can't be the only reason but interesting nevertheless.

[–] ronl2k@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Ice wasn’t everywhere.

The last ice age of 40,000 years ago covered everywhere Neanderthals lived, and no Neanderthals survived it. The last Neanderthals went extinct from exposure in a cave in Spain, which was affected by the last ice age.

No sewing equipment has ever been found with Neanderthals. They died of exposure in spite of being more cold-hardy than homo-sapiens, who by the last ice age had mastered sewing tighter-fitting clothing with leather and fur. That's why we survived the last ice age, and the Neanderthals did not.

[–] plyth@feddit.org 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

There are sites outside of Europe which means that it was not only sewing.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neanderthal Demographics

[–] ronl2k@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

From your article:

Pre- and early Neanderthals seem to have continuously occupied only France, Spain, and Italy, although some appear to have moved out of this "core-area" to form temporary settlements eastward (without leaving Europe). Nonetheless, southwestern France has the highest density of sites for pre- and classic Neanderthals.

[–] plyth@feddit.org 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

continuously

They were expelled elsewhere. If they were not they would have survived.

It is also possible that they didn't need sewing but are extinct because sewing allowed us to finally also settle Europe.

[–] ronl2k@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The archaeological consensus remains that Neanderthals went extinct because they could not survive the last ice age.

[–] plyth@feddit.org 1 points 1 day ago

No doubt about that.