Giving Compass' Take:

• Smithsonian magazine explains that researchers have proposed a new hypothesis for why the Neanderthals died out: climate change via an extreme cold spell.

• Besides raising more alarm bells, how could this information be useful to us as we face the effects of climate change now? What steps can we take to save our planet? 

• Learn how every ecosystem on earth will be impacted by the changing climate.

About 40,000 years ago, Neanderthals began disappearing from Europe, but exactly why they died out is a mystery. Some paleoarchaeologists have hypothesized it’s possible they simply couldn’t reproduce fast enough to keep up with the modern humans moving into Europe around that time. Others suggest modern humans slaughtered any bands of Neanderthal they came across or infected them with novel diseases. And some suggest that an environmental catastrophe, like a volcanic eruption in Europe, killed off many plants and animals.

Researchers propose a new hypothesis this week that suggests our bipedal brethren weren’t equipped to stand a cold spell that accompanied two long periods of extended climate change that took place around the time the species began its decline, Malcolm Ritter at the Associated Press reports.

To investigate the climate of central Europe during the age of Neanderthals, researchers looked at stalagmites in two Romanian caves. According to a press release, like trees, stalagmites grow thin new layers each year. Temperature influences the size and chemical composition of the calcium carbonate layers. Each layer includes isotope data about rainfall, soil bacteria that reveals the fertility of the land and other information that can help create a detailed annual climate record. In this case, the cave formations provided the most detailed record of climate change in Europe available so far.

Read the full article about climate change and the Neanderthals by Jason Daley at Smithsonian.