Last Neanderthals

[Music]

imagine that pivotal moment in history

the last time modern humans encountered

their Neanderthal counterparts what did

they think of each other did they

exchange ideas tools or even a shared

sense of awe at their world these

encounters were not merely the meeting

of two species but the merging of

Destinies leaving traces of Neanderthal

DNA in many of us today neanderthals

were well suited to live in Western

Eurasia having been present in the

region for at least

150,000 years well before the onset of

the last ice age geographically they

ranged across Europe from Iberia to

Russia and from the Mediterranean to

Northern Europe Southern European

peninsulas likely served as refugees

during glacial periods helping them

survive extreme climates when Northern

regions became uninhabitable