Reacción a "The last Neanderthals in northwestern Europe had greater genetic diversity than previously thought"

The study is technically sound and significant because it greatly expands the available genetic information on the last Neanderthals of north-western Europe. Its main finding is that these groups do not appear to show extreme inbreeding or a progressive loss of genetic diversity. In other words, they do not fit well with the idea of genetically depleted late Neanderthals.

The main implication is that the final history of the Neanderthals was more complex than an explanation based solely on low genetic diversity would suggest. Some populations, such as those in the Altai, do appear to have been highly isolated and inbred, but others, such as these from north-western Europe, were more connected.

Consequently, the study does not rule out the importance of genetics in the Neanderthal disappearance, but it does undermine the idea that low genetic variability was the sole cause of their extinction. Rather, it points to a multifactorial explanation: low population density, territorial fragmentation, environmental changes, interaction with Homo sapiens and perhaps social or cultural differences.