A fresh — and quite radical — theory has reignited the long-running scientific debate over what led to the disappearance of the Neanderthals. Agnit Mukhopadhyay, a physicist at the University of Michigan, suggests that the end of the Neanderthals may have been triggered by a dramatic geomagnetic event about 41,000 years ago, which exposed Earth to intense cosmic and ultraviolet radiation.
Mukhopadhyay’s hypothesis, recently published in Science Advances, is based on 3D models reconstructing Earth’s geospace environment during what’s known as the Laschamp event — a brief reversal of Earth’s magnetic poles that significantly weakened the planet’s magnetic shield. According to his research, this weakening allowed harmful radiation to reach the surface, creating an especially hostile environment for the Neanderthals.
In this scenario, Homo sapiens are thought to have had a crucial survival advantage. Mukhopadhyay argues that the use of tightly fitting clothing, ochre as a sunblock, and regular sheltering in caves likely gave modern humans a protective edge. Neanderthals, lacking comparable measures, may have succumbed to the harsher conditions.
However, this interpretation has drawn sharp criticism from the scientific community. Many researchers point out that it oversimplifies a highly complex topic. While it’s true that no direct evidence of Neanderthal clothing has survived, that doesn’t mean they didn’t wear clothes. In fact, there is strong archaeological evidence of hide processing with specialized tools, clearly suggesting they crafted basic garments. Surviving in Ice Age Europe without clothing would have been virtually impossible.
Ochre use, too, was not exclusive to Homo sapiens. Ample evidence shows that Neanderthals also used ochre for various purposes — symbolic, decorative, medicinal, or even as an insect repellent. One striking example is a perforated scallop shell from Cueva Antón in Spain, stained with ochre and attributed to Neanderthal craftsmanship.
Mukhopadhyay’s theory also argues that Neanderthals were at a disadvantage because they lacked long-range hunting technology, unlike modern humans who developed stone-tipped projectiles. While it’s true that technological innovation was a significant advantage for Homo sapiens, it alone cannot fully account for the disappearance of the Neanderthals.
In fact, genetic evidence indicates that Neanderthals didn’t vanish entirely — they were gradually absorbed into the Homo sapiens gene pool through interbreeding. The numerical superiority of modern humans likely played a decisive role in this integration.
Crucially, Mukhopadhyay’s hypothesis lacks strong archaeological support. There is no evidence of a sudden demographic collapse of Neanderthal populations during the Laschamp event, nor is there proof of mass extinctions among other human or animal species at that time. If increased solar radiation had been such a decisive factor, we would expect to see similar effects among Homo sapiens living in warmer parts of Africa — yet no such impact is evident.
The disappearance of the Neanderthals remains a puzzle that demands a multifaceted approach, combining archaeological, paleoanthropological, and genetic insights. They were not simply victims of natural disasters or technological inferiority. On the contrary, they were a culturally sophisticated species, highly adaptable, who endured dramatic climate shifts and magnetic anomalies, including the Blake event 120,000 years ago.
The idea that a pole reversal wiped out the Neanderthals is certainly an intriguing narrative, but it does not stand up to scrutiny. More likely, their story did not end in abrupt extinction — it lives on today, woven into our own.
