Neanderthals may have faced extinction long before modern humans emerged

Western Europe has long been held to be the "cradle" of Neanderthal evolution, and anthropologists have theorized that climatic factors or competition from modern humans were the likely causes when Neanderthals started disappearing around 30,000 years ago. But new research suggests that Western European Neanderthals were on the verge of extinction long before modern humans showed up.