Part 7/9:
Despite these harrowing conditions, it appears not all Neanderthals perished immediately due to the eruption. They persisted in the southern reaches of Europe, specifically Gibraltar, for approximately 15,000 years more. Many researchers suggest that the very survival tendencies that defined Neanderthals have lived on within the modern human genome. Today's humans of non-African descent carry a trace of Neanderthal DNA, a legacy left behind from interbreeding that granted certain advantageous traits aiding survival.