Spongiform encephalopathy, cannibalism and Neanderthals extinction

Abstract

There are paleoecological evidences that Neanderthals ate the brains of deers and goats as well that of their own decea- sed. This would expose each individual and the population to the risks of contracting the Creutzfeldt Jacob disease. Those who consumed the remains of infected individual's would then contract the disease and eventually infect others. If this is the case then the Neanderthal extinction could be attribu- ted to spongiform encephalopathy and not to the cultural supremacy of the anatomically modem man.