Finlayson C, Pacheco FG, Rodríguez-Vidal J, Fa DA, Gutierrez López JM, Santiago Pérez A, Finlayson G, Allue E, Baena Preysler J, Cáceres I, Carrión JS, Fernández Jalvo Y, Gleed-Owen CP, Jimenez Espejo FJ, López P, López Sáez JA, Riquelme Cantal JA, Sánchez Marco A, Guzman FG, Brown K, Fuentes N, Valarino CA, Villalpando A, Stringer CB, Martinez Ruiz F, Sakamoto T. Late survival of Neanderthals at the southernmost extreme of Europe.
Nature 2006;
443:850-3. [PMID:
16971951 DOI:
10.1038/nature05195]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 330] [Impact Index Per Article: 18.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/12/2006] [Accepted: 08/25/2006] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
The late survival of archaic hominin populations and their long contemporaneity with modern humans is now clear for southeast Asia. In Europe the extinction of the Neanderthals, firmly associated with Mousterian technology, has received much attention, and evidence of their survival after 35 kyr bp has recently been put in doubt. Here we present data, based on a high-resolution record of human occupation from Gorham's Cave, Gibraltar, that establish the survival of a population of Neanderthals to 28 kyr bp. These Neanderthals survived in the southernmost point of Europe, within a particular physiographic context, and are the last currently recorded anywhere. Our results show that the Neanderthals survived in isolated refuges well after the arrival of modern humans in Europe.
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