Neanderthal man may not have become extinct as long ago as previously thought, raising new questions about the spread of modern humans across the world, say Oxford University researchers.

The university's Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit has, for the first time, dated actual specimens of fossil human bone from both Neanderthal and early anatomically-modern humans.

The findings suggest that the first definitive evidence of modern human existence in Europe may only date from about 30,000 to 32,000 years ago - several thousand years later than traditionally thought. Dr Paul Pettitt, senior archaeologist at the unit, said the dating process places the bones, a skull fragment and a jaw bone, to between 28,000 and 29,000 years ago - establishing the remains as the youngest directly-related Neanderthal known.

The dating of the specimens, found in Croatia, demonstrates that this region saw some of the last, if not the last, Neanderthal populations alive.

Dr Pettitt said: "This generates some potentially-interesting implications concerning the nature of early modern human-Neanderthal interactions in Europe.

"In all, the process of Neanderthal extinction may have differed region to region."

Story date: Saturday 30 October

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