In a recent report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers found that Neanderthals possibly reached extinction 15,000 years earlier than we thought. It's believed that modern humans at one point shared the planet with Neanderthals and the debate continues over just how long. Researchers worked to determine how much interaction and interbreeding occurred between Neanderthals and modern day humans and the results are out.
Data retrieved by a team of researchers who investigated excavated bones from southern Iberia from an area today known as Spain, lead to new findings. It has been determined that Neanderthals and modern humans may have never crossed paths. According to the new research, Neanderthals and modern humans lived in the region during completely different eras.
Prior research led to the belief that Neanderthals may have shared the region of Iberia with modern humans for thousands of years and that they did not become extinct until approximately 35,000 years ago. "Much of the evidence that has supported this idea is based on a series of radiocarbon dates which cluster at around 35,000 years ago. Our results call all of these results into question," said archaeologist and radiocarbon specialist at Australian National University in Canberra, Rachel Wood.
There are certain techniques that help scientists to determine the ages of artifacts and fossils. Scientists often use carbon dating, which is the ratio between the carbon isotopes, carbon-12 and cabon-14 is calculated in biological remains. The layers of soil and rock where artifacts and fossils are found are also another way researchers can determine the ages of objects. Objects found in layers of undisturbed soil and rock would be considered the same age.
The carbon dating of the collagen of eight bones from two sites in Spain, Zafarraya Cave and Jarama VI found that the bone was actually more than 46,700 years old. Cleansing the bone of modern carbon impurities helped to provide a more accurate date, as it was previously estimated to be 33,300 years in age.
"Our work suggests that at present, it is unlikely that Neanderthals survived any later in this area than they did elsewhere in mainland Europe," said researcher Thomas Higham at the University of Oxford in England.
