article_snippet: scientists have found that an enormous volcanic eruption in Italy 40,000 years ago had little impact on the species .
article_snippet: Neanderthals, shown above from the TV series Walking with Neanderthals, were already on the decline by the time of the Campanian Ignimbrite eruption in Italy 40,000 years ago caused widespread climate cooling .
article_snippet: Although Huge volcanic eruption was one of the largest volcanic explosions in Europe, scientists say the cooling and increased levels of acid rain that resulted from Huge volcanic eruption would have had little impact in the areas where Neanderthals were living.
article_snippet: scientists argue that Neanderthal populations had already started to decline by the time the volcano erupted and the volcano was insufficient to trigger scientists extinction.
article_snippet: Dr Benjamin Black, from the department of earth sciences at the University of California, Berkeley, who led the research, said: 'Radiocarbon dating has shown that at the time of the Campanian Ignimbrite eruption, anatomically modern humans had already arrived in Europe, and the range of Neanderthals had steadily diminished. '
article_snippet: However, others have proposed that the explosive eruption of a volcano close to what is now modern day Naples threw millions of tonnes of sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere that could have led to the final extinction of the Neanderthals.
article_snippet: This image shows the average temperature anomalies in excess of 3°C in the year following the Campanian Ignimbrite eruption alongside sites where Neanderthal and human remains from the time have been found .
article_snippet: Researchers from Oxford and Plymouth universities found that the largest temperature decreases would have occurred in eastern Europe and Asia, avoiding the areas where the last Neanderthals populations were surviving in western Europe.
article_snippet: Researchers from Oxford and Plymouth universities say that the eruption was 'probably insufficient' to trigger the Neanderthal extinction.
article_snippet: However, Researchers from Oxford and Plymouth universities say that the cold weather that followed the eruption would still have impacted the day-to day life of Neanderthals and early humans in Europe.
article_snippet: Dr Black and his colleagues said: 'Significant volcanic cooling during the years immediately following the eruption could have impacted the viability of already precarious populations and influenced many aspects of daily life for Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans.'
highlights_snippet: Huge volcanic eruption has been blamed for the demise of Neanderthals .
  
highlights_snippet: However, researchers say there was less cooling where Neanderthals lived .
  
highlights_snippet: This suggests Huge volcanic eruption did not play a role in the demise of the species .
  