Research shines light on Neanderthals' coexistence with humans

Neanderthals coexisted with early modern humans in Europe for up to 5,400 years, according to researchers from Oxford university who used new techniques to pinpoint when the early cousins of Homo sapiens became extinct.

Scientists used radiocarbon dating evidence for 200 bone, charcoal and shell samples from 40 European archaeological sites to show that the two human groups overlapped for a significant period of time.

They also concluded that Neanderthals disappeared gradually at different times in different locations, rather than undergoing rapid extinction.

It was already known that there was some contact and interbreeding between the two groups because research has shown that about 1.5-2.1 per cent of the DNA of modern non-African humans originates from Neanderthals.

However, the Oxford research published in the journal Nature yesterday provides the most detailed timeline so far of how this process unfolded.

Neanderthals - a human subspecies related to, but genetically different from Homo sapiens - had lived in Europe for hundreds of thousands of years when the first modern humans migrated out of Africa.

It is thought they died out because they were unable to compete with modern humans for food and resources but pinpointing the precise time when this happened has been difficult.

Using the latest carbon dating techniques, researchers were able to establish that the Mousterian toolmaking industry attributed to Neanderthals ended between 39,260 and 41,030 years ago.

Based on the latest evidence of when modern humans arrived in Europe, this suggested the two groups overlapped for between 2,600 and 5,400 years.

The researchers said there was no evidence that Neanderthals and modern humans lived closely together in Europe but described the relationship as "a biological and cultural mosaic".

Professor Thomas Higham, the lead researcher on the project, said: "We believe we now have the first robust timeline that sheds new light on some of the key questions around the possible interactions between Neanderthals and modern humans.

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The research was carried out over six years at sites ranging from Russia to Spain.

Prof Higham said previous research had often underestimated the age of samples because the organic matter was contaminated with modern particles.

Prof Higham added: "Of course, the Neanderthalsare not completely extinct because some of theirgenes are in most of us today."

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