Neanderthals co-existed with modern humans for thousands of years

Neanderthals and modern humans lived side by side for thousands of years in locations across Europe, giving them plenty of time to share ideas as well as DNA, new evidence suggests.

It was previously believed that Neanderthals vanished almost uniformly, but new evidence shows the wider population overlapped with present-day humans across Europe for up to 5,400 years before disappearing about 40,000 years ago. 

A study released in June backs up the findings, hypothesizing that ancient Neanderthal species evolved with multiple species and sub-species – not just one group that eventually lost out to humans. One paleontologist involved in the study compared it to the television series, Game of Thrones, with different ‘kingdoms’ competing and replacing each other.

“Now that we are using better techniques, the picture is becoming much more clear in terms of the process by which Neanderthals disappeared from Europe,” said Tom Higham, the study’s lead researcher. “Our results suggest there was a mosaic of populations.”

A new timeline — the most accurate to date — created by Higham and other University of Oxford researchers over six years was published Wednesday in the journal Nature.

It shows that Neanderthals and present-day humans lived in close proximity to each other in Europe for anywhere from 2,600 to 5,400 years — giving them plenty of time to interbreed. 

The findings are novel because researchers previously were unable to use radiocarbon dating on samples older than 30,000 years due to contamination. For this study, however, scientists used modern methods to remove the contaminants to accurately date bone, charcoal and shell samples collected from 40 different sites across Europe.

For years scientists overwhelmingly believed Neanderthals were inferior in intelligence to modern humans, which led to their demise. But new evidence paints a different picture — showing that they cooperated with each other, took care of the sick and elderly, carried out elaborate burial rituals, and used symbolic language and art to express ideas.

Genomic studies have shown that the Neanderthal’s disappearance is more likely the result of reduced fertility in male offspring resulting from interbreeding with modern humans. Research released in January confirmed that small amounts of Neanderthal DNA affected the skin and hair of modern humans, further bolstering the theory that the two groups interbred.

Al Jazeera with wire services