Abstract

There now seems little doubt that Neanderthals were replaced by modern humans from Africa. The counterintuitive character of this stems from the fact that Neanderthals were a highly successful species specially adapted to these cold temperate and cold environments, but were replaced by a species evolved in the tropics. Explaining this evolutionary event mandates the integration of the ecological conditions for hominin evolution in western Eurasia and tropical Africa wedded to a bio-behavioural perspective that seamlessly joins the evidence for archaeology, physical anthropology, and human biology. Drawing on ecological theory and evidence for physiological and behavioural differences between modern humans and Neanderthals, I construct a model that argues that Neanderthals evolved a bio-behavioural faunal exploitation strategy that was high risk, high cost, high return and was focused on the pursuit of larger mammals than later appearing modern humans. Modern humans evolved in Africa a strategy that was more low risk, low cost, and focused on more consistent returns, overall more generalised, and based on technological flexibility coupled to knowledge transmission through language. Its routes lie in the development of a strategy to cope with the high diversity of plant foods in Africa, and their spatial and temporal variations. Neanderthals and modern humans evolved distinct adaptational paths characterised by distinct faunal exploitation strategies that, when juxtaposed together in initial sympatry after the migration of modern humans into Eurasia, resulted in modern humans usurping the niche space of Neanderthals and forcing them into extinction.

Résumé

Il y a désormais peu de doute sur le fait que l'homme de Néandertal a été remplacé en Europe par des populations modernes provenant d'Afrique. Le caractère contre intuitif de ce constat vient du fait que les Néandertaliens étaient une espèce particulièrement adaptée aux milieux tempérés et froids, mais qu'elle a été remplacée par une espèce qui a évolué dans les tropiques. L'explication de cet événement demande que l'on conjugue les conditions écologiques de l’évolution des hominidés en Eurasie occidentale et en Afrique tropicale avec une perspective sur le comportement biologique qui permette de relier progressivement les données de l'archéologie, de l'anthropologie physique et de la biologie humaine.