Archaeologica.org

Based on the results, the scientists believe that Neandertals and modern humans diverged about 830,000 years ago. Based on simulations, the two populations diverged on the order of 300,000 years ago, although there is significant uncertainty associated with that number.

Neanderthals are of course extinct. But there never were very many of them, new research concludes.

In fact, new genetic evidence from the remains of six Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis) suggests the population hovered at an average of 1,500 females of reproductive age in Europe between 38,000 and 70,000 years ago, with the maximum estimate of 3,500 such female Neanderthals.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/artic ... s-downfall

The Stone Age whodunit is far from solved. But researchers are converging on one conclusion: regardless of whether climate or competition with moderns, or some combination thereof, was the prime mover in the decline of the Neandertals, the precise factors governing the extinction of individual populations of these archaic hominids almost certainly varied from group to group. Some may have perished from disease, others from inbreeding. “Each valley may tell its own story,” Finlayson remarks.

More than one cause? How very enlightened of them.

Since Hn and Hss co-existed for about 15,000 years

Which genes make us uniquely human? Scientists are looking at DNA in old bones to find out. The focus now is not so much on our own species, Homo sapiens. Instead, scientists are probing DNA in well-preserved pieces of bone from our closest extinct relative, the Neanderthal.