News Anthropology

Earlier dates for Neandertal extinction cause a fuss

Revised age suggests the hominids disappeared 40,000 years ago in Europe

EARLY DEPARTURE  European Neandertals, including one represented by this lower jaw excavated in southern Spain, survived no later than about 40,000 years ago, new radiocarbon dates suggest.

T. Higham

By Bruce Bower

- More than 2 years ago

Neandertals died out in Western Europe earlier than many scientists thought, between about 41,000 and 39,000 years ago, after interbreeding with modern humans and picking up toolmaking pointers from them for a few thousand years, a new study suggests.