It's about the great mystery of human history: Why did the Neanderthals die out? They were evolutionarily our cousins and populated Europe before us. And quite successfully. For 200,000 years they survived ice ages and adverse living conditions here. But when Homo Sapiens, our direct ancestor, enters European soil, they disappear. Until about 160 years ago, quarry workers found their bones in Neandertal, in the middle of North Rhine-Westphalia between Düsseldorf and Wuppertal. And so that spectacular scientific history can be written: the mystery of the identity and demise of the Neanderthals begins.
Why did they die out? Was perhaps the mating between the Neanderthal man and modern man to blame? Or did Homo Sapiens bring a pathogen they weren't prepared for? Quarks pursues the most important and exciting theses!
