What Happened to the Neanderthals?

What BBN said about it

1. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorThe New York Times asked what happened to the Neanderthals, and the answer starts with scientists saying they shared many of the sophisticated abilities of Homo sapiens.

2. 

   Vera Bullock · Co-AnchorSophisticated is a strong word for people without a group chat.

3. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorA modelling study led by Ariane Burke at the Université de Montréal borrowed techniques normally used to study where plants and animals live.

4. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorIt found regions favourable to Homo sapiens were more highly connected than Neanderthal ones.

5. 

   Vera Bullock · Co-AnchorThey studied plants and animals for this? Fine. Then the Neanderthals were a rare shrub with no outreach.

6. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorNeanderthal populations, especially in Eastern Europe, were more isolated and more vulnerable to climate variability, according to Phys.org.

7. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorThe researchers say they didn't simply lose to climate or to competition.

8. 

   Vera Bullock · Co-AnchorSo not dumber?

9. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorNo. This is a model, so it's a suggestion about the past and not a recording of it.

10. 

    Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorAnother 2025 model suggested they may have been absorbed genetically, and many of us carry one to four percent of their DNA. Ruling: myth.

11. 

    Vera Bullock · Co-AnchorFine. Reach is everything. And my podcast is, I'm told by me, thriving in Eastern Europe.

12. 

    Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorYour podcast has the Neanderthal problem. Very capable, extremely isolated.