Climate change may have driven Homo sapiens to extinction in Europe before we were helped by Neanderthals. The Nature article provides more details.

I often wonder if the right species survived.

An example of Neanderthal cave art. The image on the left shows a ladder-shaped painting that was made by Neanderthals at least 64,000 years ago in Spain’s La Pasiega Cave. On the right, a drawing made by an archaeologist in 1913 shows animals and other symbols that are difficult to see on the cave wall. These may have been added to the original painting later, possibly by modern humans. This suggests Neanderthal art may have been symbolic and abstract. The addition of animal images is more reflective of the literalist depictions common in early Homo sapient art.
Ben Harris-Roxas @ben_hr