The Viral Theory: Why did the Neanderthals become extinct? Why neanderthals went extinct? Could the Homo neanderthalensis have been extinct because of a poliovirus? Poliomyelitis is highly contagious via the fecal-oral (intestinal source) and the oral-oral (oropharyngeal source) routes, and in endemic areas, wild polioviruses can infect virtually the entire Homo sapiens or Neanderthals population. Currently the most likely scenario is that Neanderthals were a separate species from modern Homo sapiens and became extinct due to several Polymorphisms in immune pathways associate with the viral susceptibility of poliovirus. Among those paralyzed, more than 10% die when their breathing muscles become immobilized. Does Neanderthal extinction begin around 40,000 years ago in the Paleolithic Europe, after anatomically modern humans had reached the continent with the poliovirus?
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