New study suggests Italian blast was more devastating than thought.
The Campi Flegrei volcanic caldera eruption of some 39,000 years ago – the largest volcanic eruption that Europe has seen in the last 200,000 years – was apparently much larger than previously thought, says this article on Amazing Planet.
Mount Vesuvius, part of a large volcanic arc west of Naples, Italy - Photo credit: NASA
When scientists investigated the Campi Flegrei caldera volcano west of Naples, they found evidence that the eruption would have spewed 60 to 72 cubic miles (250 to 300 cu km) of ash across 1.4 million sq miles (3.7 million sq km), which is twice to triple previous estimates.
“This super-eruption may have played a part in wiping out or driving away Neanderthal and modern human populations in the eastern Mediterranean,” says the article.
These findings, detailed online May 30 in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, suggest the super-eruption would have cooled the Northern Hemisphere by 1.8 to 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit (1 to 2 degrees Celsius) for two to three years. (For comparison, the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo reduced global temperatures by about 0.9 degrees Fahrenheit (0.5C).
Note: I don’t know how exact this 39,000-year-ago date may be. My studies show that the Neanderthals went extinct about 33,5000 years ago in sync with the Lake Mungo magnetic reversal.
Further note: The ground around Mount Vesuvius, which last erupted in 1538, has been swelling for the past 40 years, stoking fears of an eruption that would threaten the roughly 1 million residents of Naples.
See entire article:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/47906222/ns/technology_and_science-science/#.T-OVzfW73GA
Thanks to Alex Meyer for this link
17 Responses to Did super eruption wipe out the Neanderthals?
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I don’t believe the neanderthals were ever wiped out, just assimilated into us. A normal European carries about 2-4% of Neaderthal DNA. I happen to carry a bit higher as I’ve had my DNA done. There are associations of Blood groups that carry neg rh and I believe the Neanderthals were among them. When newcomers came into the fold many of the neg Rh women had a hard time bearing more than one surviving child because the newcomers carried Rh pos blood. Blood incompatibilities I believe are at teh core of their assimilation into modern humans. There is a group in Spain, the Basques who are probably the closest you will ever get to a neaderthal and that is NOT an insult as I am part Basque. The Basques are unique in that the do not speak a language that is Indo European and many of them carry O- blood types. Neanderthals aren’t cavemen and their cranial capacity was bigger than modern Humans. The neanderthals are among us, within us. Ok, now I’m off to drag my knuckles and resume my cave painting
Very interesting. Do you have links for that info on the o- blood / cranial capacity please?
I agree that you have done your research. Human cultures and races from around the world do and can reproduce and make offspring to this day,its common sense. The humanzee…well that’s another story. Japanese researchers tried to solve, this mystery upright walking anomoly chimp/man and said chromosomes were off a bit from human! I still wonder if a human is involved with oliver.. come to being(if I recall his name)?
My husband, who is a combination of Scots & Norwegian, has been tested and has Neanterthal genes. He has a central ridge on his skull which has strong muscle attachment, has ears that twitch to the rear in response to sound (and can be moved at will), a very strong, dense bone structure (10″ wrist bone) etc. They are not totally gone it seems.
ShariShark do you know his blood type? In my family my dad and I have a ridge on top our heads and type O negative blood. My mom and two brothers have no ridge and are typeO positive. There seems to be a body of opinion to the effect the there are physical differences between people based on RH factors or the lack of them.
Actually, Neandertals had two strikes against them. The first was that they were on average a lot more muscular than we are today. Hence they would have had a higher basal metabolism and need to eat more food to keep from starving to death than we would. That’s not a problem when times are good, but when times are tough and for whatever reason there isn’t enough food to go around that’s a significant disadvantage.
The second was that while their sekeletons were more robust than ours due to their increased musculature, there was one important place where their skeletons weren’t as strong as ours. The pubic area. Relatively weak skeletal structure in the pubic area coupled with the fact that their infants had slightly larger heads than modern infants do lead to the supposition that they lost more women in child birth on average than modern people do.
Thus increased need for food resources over and above what modern man would need coupled with a greater mortality rate among women giving birth would be more than enough to put them at a serious competitive disadvantage vis a vis modern humans when times got real tough and there wasn’t enough food to go around.
I would say there is probably people with considerably more neanderthal genes than 2 to 4 percent. Once you know what to look for you will never see the human race as being one species ever again. As for me I am a type O negative with a straight up and down face and fore head with blond hair and blue grey eyes. I also have a small ridge on top of my head. My ancestors are from scotland, england, germany and denmark. If there are neanderthal genes in me they are minimal. I am not sure blood type O has anything to do with neanderthals.
Any way back to volcanoes. Yes there are many very large calderas in Italy and it would not be surprising that when any of them erupted there was a significant effect on the climate and the survival of life forms in the region.
Note: I don’t know how exact this 39,000-year-ago date may be. My studies show that the Neanderthals went extinct about 33,5000 years ago in sync with the Lake Mungo magnetic reversal.
Further note: The ground around Mount Vesuvius, which last erupted in 1538, has been swelling for the past 40 years, stoking fears of an eruption that would threaten the roughly 1 million residents of Naples.
Robert I watched a documentary that indicated that the last known neanderthals might have died out about 24,000 to 26,000 years ago at Gibraltar.
It is entirely possible that extinction of pure bred neanderthals may have been a gradual process based on the internal cycles of the last ice age having an effect on the availability of food. Sort of a boom bust cycle in food supplies and population
that eventually wiped out the neanderthals as a pure species. As for the 2 to 4 percent neanderthal genes that is a result of hybrids being able to reproduce and add to the cromagnon gene pool. There is more to the history of mankind than you can shake a spear at.
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Homo Neanderthalensis first appeared roughly 200,000 years ago. Proto neanderthales about 600,000 years ago. That is an awfully long time. Lots and lots of ice ages, magnetic reversals, and a few super volcanoes. They managed to weather them all and flourish. That is not supposition but fact. When they came in to contact with emh they began to go in to decline. That too is fact. It is possible that this super volcano was the straw that broke the camel’s back, but volcano or no, Neanderthals were doomed. Out thought, out hunted, out bred and probably subjegated they were an evolutionary experiment that ran its course. I wonder if they knew what was happening to them? I wonder if we will know when our string runs out?
Interestingly there are theories that the Nephilim and Og king of Bashan of the remnant of the Rephaites mentioned in the old testament were Neanderthals.
I think they were never wiped out?
It’s been proven but kept quiet, that the europeans are from homo-sapiens and the africans from neanderthals
In the last couple years I’ve found a few websites that deals with neanderthals. It seems the genotype may be alive and well in modern times.
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Nikolay+Valuev+-+Russian+boxer&view=detail&id=20FCCDCA170A13CE789C2C866770B42E912D972D&qpvt=Nikolay+Valuev+-+Russian+boxer&FORM=IDFRIR
http://www.realjewnews.com/?p=706
http://www.michaelbradley.info/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/garret-loporto/surprising-way-your-neand_b_568455.html
Look at the bright side. If this super volcano let loose today it would certainly negate the constant nagging euro crisis. ;>)
I used to believe Neanderthals were extinct till I saw one while I was on a busines trip. it was amazing, he had a massive jawline )three times the thickness of most peoples jawbone),heavy eyebrow ridges and an extremely sloping forehead and massive rear skull, just like the pictures they draw of them.
As far as I am aware the last eruption of Mount Vesuvius happened in 1944. Quite a number of American bombers on a nearby airfield were either destroyed or badly damaged. This is just for therecord.
Robert Felix, You are just great. truly.
It is a little off topic but I found a 2 hour video about Yellowstone erupting.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AjQvOWUJ2o&feature=related