00:00Scientists have spent a century debating why Neanderthals disappeared.
00:04A new study published this week has the most compelling answer yet.
00:08Climate, competition, and violence were all blamed.
00:11But new research says the real answer is something more fundamental.
00:16Social connectivity.
00:18Homo sapiens built larger, more flexible social networks,
00:21able to share information, trade, and cooperate across much greater distances than Neanderthals managed.
00:28Neanderthals were not inferior.
00:31Their tools were sophisticated.
00:32Their art was real.
00:34But their social units appear to have been smaller and more isolated.
00:38When climate pressures came, Homo sapiens survived by networking.
00:43Neanderthals, without that wider web, could not adapt quickly enough.
00:4840,000 years ago, the most connected species won.
00:51It was never about strength.
00:53It was always about who could build the better network.
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