The mysterious disappearance of our Neanderthal cousins may have been related to preeclampsia, a life-threatening complication of pregnancy and/or the postpartum period, doctors propose in a new study. But experts in paleoanthropology are not convinced.
In a paper published Jan. 30 in the Journal of Reproductive Immunology, an international team of neonatologists and OB-GYNs argued that preeclampsia and eclampsia — a related disorder that involves one or more seizures during pregnancy or the postpartum period — have "never been seriously considered in hypotheses concerning Neanderthal reproductive biology and their eventual extinction."
