Modern humans and Neanderthals co-existed in Europe 10 times longer than previously thought, a study suggests.
研究显示，现代人与穴居人共存于欧洲的时间比之前所想长10倍。
Our ancestors may have passed on technological innovations to the Neanderthals
The most comprehensive dating of Neanderthal bones and tools ever carried out suggests that the two species lived side-by-side for up to 5,000 years.
The new evidence suggests that the two groups may even have exchanged ideas and culture, say the researchers.
The study has been published in the journal Nature.
Until now, Neanderthal remains have been dated by a number of laboratories but many have been considered unreliable.
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Now an international team of researchers collected more than 400 samples from the most important sites in Europe. The samples were purified and analysed using state-of-the-art dating methods at Oxford University.
The results provide the clearest insight yet into the interaction between our ancestors and Neanderthals, when they first encountered each other and why the Neanderthals went extinct, according to the lead researcher, Prof Thomas Higham of the University of Oxford.
"I think we can set aside the idea of a rapid extinction of Neanderthals caused solely by the arrival of modern humans. Instead we can see a more complex process in which there is a much longer overlap between the two populations where there could have been exchanges of ideas and culture."
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