Climate change in Europe: what impact on Neanderthals?

The report on the interdisciplinary research carried out by researchers from Aix Marseille University and CNRS at the Laboratoire méditerranéen de préhistoire Europe (AMU/CNRS/Ministère de la Culture) and the Anthropologie bio-culturelle, Droit, Ethique et Santé laboratory (AMU/CNRS/Etablissement francais du sang), and froma laboratory at the University of Reading, UK (National Centre for Atmospheric Science, Department of Meteorology), has just been published on February 26, 2025 in the prestigious journal PLOS ONE .

This research has been going on for several years, and has involved a great deal of exchange and pooling of skills and knowledge from different disciplines. The key words in this research are: modeling, paleoclimatology, ecological niches and the Neanderthal fossil population. This study, which analyzed a period of the past (between -90,000 and -50,000 years ago), has a particular resonance today: the relationship between climate change, environmental modification and the survival of a species.

The results show that the ecological niches favorable to the Neanderthal population changed over time, following the major climatic changes of the past (between -90,000 and -50,000 years ago). Some of these zones have remained constant, others have changed in extent and still others have disappeared. In the most recent periods analyzed, there has been no significant reduction in favorable niches. In the debate over the disappearance of the Neanderthal population, these results demonstrate that environmental factors are probably not responsible for this disappearance.

Climate change in Europe between 90 and 50 kyr BP and Neanderthal territorial habitability. Anna Degioanni , Sandrine Cabut, Silvana Condemi, Robin S. Smith. Plos one, February 26, 2025.
DOI : https://doi.org/10.1371/­journal.po­ne.0308690