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		</div><p>Inbreeding and small populations could have led to the extinction of Neanderthals, research suggests.</p>
<p>According to a new study, Neanderthal extinction could have occurred without environmental pressure or competition with modern humans.</p>
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<p>Neanderthals disappeared around 40,000 years ago, around the same time anatomically modern humans started migrating to the Near East and Europe.</p>
<p>The authors said: “Did Neanderthals disappear because of us?</p>
<p>“No, this study suggests. The species’ demise might have been due merely to a stroke of bad, demographic luck.”</p>
<p>It has long been thought the replacement of Neanderthals by modern humans was due to environmental pressure or a superiority of modern humans with respect to competition for resources.</p>
<p>But a study published in the PLOS One journal suggests these factors may not be entirely responsible for the demise of the ancient human relatives.</p>
<blockquote><p>Our study suggests that any plausible explanation of the demise also needs to incorporate demographic factors as key variables</p></blockquote>
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<p>Using data from extant hunter-gatherer populations as parameters, scientists developed population models for simulated Neanderthal populations of various initial sizes.</p>
<p>They then simulated for their model populations the effects of inbreeding, Allee effects – where reduced population size negatively impacts individuals’ fitness, and annual random demographic fluctuations in births, deaths, and the sex ratio.</p>
<p>They did this to see if these factors could bring about an extinction event over a 10,000-year period.</p>
<p>According to the findings, inbreeding alone was unlikely to have led to extinction.</p>
<p>However, reproduction-related Allee effects where 25% or fewer Neanderthal females gave birth within a given year, could have caused extinction in populations of up to 1,000 individuals.</p>
<p>Researchers suggest that together with demographic changes, Allee effects plus inbreeding could have caused extinction within the 10,000 years allotted in the population models.</p>
<p>But the scientists acknowledge their population models are limited by their parameters, which are based on modern human hunter-gatherers and exclude the impact of the Allee effect on survival rates.</p>
<p>They add it is possible modern humans could have impacted Neanderthal populations in ways that reinforced inbreeding and Allee effects – something which is not reflected in the models.</p>
<p>However, by showing demographic issues alone could have led to Neanderthal extinction, the researchers note these models may serve as a “null hypothesis” for future competing theories.</p>
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<p>Krist Vaesen from Eindhoven University of Technology, the Netherlands, and colleagues, conclude: “Regardless of whether external factors (climate or epidemics) or factors related to resource competition played a role in the actual demise of Neanderthals, our study suggests that any plausible explanation of the demise also needs to incorporate demographic factors as key variables.”</p>
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