article_snippet.sent: Now researchers believe researchers may have uncovered a possible explanation of what may have contributed to Neanderthals eventual demise - researchers were not very adept at controlling fire.
article_snippet.sent: A team of archaeologists at Boston University and the University of Bath found that without fire, a group of Neanderthals would have had less energy - the equivalent 12 reindeer a year - than if a group of Neanderthals did.
article_snippet.sent: Neanderthals use of fire is still a highly controversial issue, but if Neanderthals use of fire had not used a highly controversial issue to cook food as much as modern humans a highly controversial issue would have put they had not used it to cook food as much as modern humans at a definite disadvantage.
article_snippet.sent: Miss Goldfield said: 'There is certainly plenty of evidence that Neanderthals used fire in Europe as well as in the Levant, Africa, and elsewhere. '
article_snippet.sent: I was absolutely not suggesting that Neanderthals had no use or control of fire.
article_snippet.sent: What we don't know is how intensively the populations used fire. '
article_snippet.sent: What is an intriguing problem is the seeming lack of consistent fire use in the Quina Mousterian, a glacial phase of the Middle Paleolithic. '
article_snippet.sent: We see a bit of burned bone at some sites, but really no evidence for lots of fire use.
article_snippet.sent: Using their computer models their were able to simulate how the populations of Neanderthals would change depending on their use of fire.
article_snippet.sent: their found that if modern humans used fire more often than Neanderthals, then their populations would grow.
article_snippet.sent: Miss Goldfield told LiveScience: 'Fire use would have provided a significant advantage for the human population and may indeed have been an important factor in the overall collapse or absorption of the Neanderthal population.'
highlights_snippet.sent: Researchers used computer models to study how Neanderthal populations would have fared if Researchers did not use fire to cook and modern humans did .
  
highlights_snippet.sent: Evidence for Neanderthals using fire is patchy and not all may have done fire .