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Volcanoes wiped out the Neanderthals?

Volcanoes wiped out the Neanderthals some 40,000 years ago, suggest archeologists, setting the stage for modern humans in Europe.

Stumpy but strong, the Neanderthals disappear from the European fossil record by about 30,000 years ago, replaced about that time by modern-looking humans. In the upcoming October Current Anthropology journal, researchers led by Liubov Golovanova of Russia's ANO Laboratory of Prehistory in St. Petersburg report that volcanic dust deposits in a cave in the Caucasus point to an ecological catastrophe wiping out our Neanderthal cousins, not warfare or competition for food....
Read entire article at USA Today