Dr Debbie Guatelli-Steinberg is an assistant professor of anthropology and evolution, ecology and organismal biology at Ohio State University where she has been investigating Neanderthals with particular attention being given to their quality of life. She has discovered that it wasn't all that bad even during the ice-age that has been thought to have driven them to extinction.

Neanderthals lived in Europe from about 200,000 to 30,000 years ago, at which time they disappeared. Their extinction was relatively rapid and common wisdom is that the ice age and increasing competition from us (homo sapiens) is what pushed them off the evolutionary tightrope that all species walk. Dr Debbie disagrees. Studying linear enamel hypoplasia which are growth rings of the teeth for evidence of a deprived childhood she found that, at the time of their extinction, the neanderthals were doing it no tougher than the modern pre-columbian Inuit. She is now extending her research to Cro-Magnon fossils of the same period to give us a more complete picture.

Her findings are published in Journal of Human Evolution (or the Journal of Complete Fiction if you are a fundamentalist Christian).

So why did they die out? Well we seem to be back to the drawing board when it comes to answering that question. Never mind it is a fascinating domain to be exploring, The Green Man is quite envious of people who get paid to do such fun stuff.

Read more about Dr Debbie's research at the Ohio State University web site.

Hang on a minute, isn't Ohio in the bible belt. Is that the most appropriate place to be researching human evolution? Interesting!