Hi, these days I came over an article about Neanderthal evolution, that seems to fit somehow into the Kangoroo information from Loren Cordaine. Neanderthals inhabited an area, which was kind of isolated during the ice ages -Europe- and therefore had a seperate line of evolution. They survived through a few worm and cold phases, but became extinct in the culmination of the last glaciation (~30000 ya). The article showed, that the cold phases must have been very hard on European inhabitants. They moved more south (the last neanderthal traces found in south of Spain). And glaciation must have reduced their numbers largely. Indeed the space north of the alps was empty of them for thousands of years. There's a reason, why Neanderthals could not simply move more southward, were the area was more bioproductive. They were rather specialized hunters and meat eaters. And, as we learnt from Cordaine's listings, game meat needs to be accompanied with a significant amount of fat (or other caloric sources). To avoid protein toxicity ("rabbit starvation"). Wild game is very lean in more temperate climates - the Kangaroo of 44kg would have allowed a maximum of 6.6kg of the muscle mass eaten. While the "nausea" limit (experienced by Stephansson) is at about half of the toxicity limit (half of 35% calories from protein). Game meat is more fatty in northern latitudes and in cold temperatures. In a glaciation phase, the boundary, were enough animals are found, moves southwards (because of smaller bioproductivity). While the region, where fat enough animals are found moves south too, but becomes smaller. Smaller because more south, *seasons* are less intense - the second reason, why animals gain fat. Maybe the neanderthal possible living space shrinked too small... to zero. Lost between rabbit starvation and glaciation in south Spain. This kind of explanation works only of the population doesn't switch to different caloric sources of wormer climates, especially nuts which are very fatty and nutritious. It's possible that eather neanderthals genetically weren't able to digest plant food properly. And/or that the nut trees didn't survive at or migrate to the southern european dead-ends like Spain and Italy. We've just to look at pollen data of 30kya of south Spain. Btw. inuit don't have this problem, because they can rely on biomass of marine origin (whales, seals, fish). Seal is called the live-bringer. I hope you could enjoy my attempt of a theory to explain the neanderthal extinction. feedback of all neanderthal friends welcome :-) cheers Amadeus Schmidt