Some of the last surviving Neanderthals were remarkably diverse ‪—‬ suggesting inbreeding didn't doom them

According to Live Science, new genetic research shows that some Neanderthals living in northwestern Europe after fifty-two thousand five hundred years ago were surprisingly genetically diverse. This challenges the theory that inbreeding led to their extinction. While Neanderthals did eventually disappear, the diversity found in these later populations suggests extinction was more complex—perhaps environmental stress or competition with modern humans played a bigger role than genetic bottlenecks alone.

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