The Dying Flame of Neanderthals: Isolation, Demography, and Extinction

About this event

For hundreds of thousands of years, Neanderthals survived across Eurasia, adapting to changing environments, developing sophisticated technologies, and maintaining complex social relationships. Yet around 40,000 years ago, they disappeared as a distinct human population. What happened? In this installment of Fire, Cells, and Circuits, we'll explore what recent discoveries reveal about Neanderthal populations, their social organization, genetic diversity, and connections across prehistoric landscapes. How large were Neanderthal communities? How did they maintain relationships and exchange individuals across populations? Could small population sizes, prolonged isolation, and demographic vulnerability have contributed to their eventual disappearance? We'll examine the emerging picture of Neanderthal life during the Late Pleistocene, considering how population structure, environmental pressures, and genetic isolation may have influenced their evolutionary fate. Ultimately, we'll consider a larger question: What might the disappearance of Neanderthals reveal about the forces that shaped the survival and eventual rise of Homo sapiens? The event will feature a research-based presentation followed by questions and discussion.