Com­mon an­ces­tor of mod­ern hu­ma­ns and Ne­an­der­thals still unknown

None of the creatures usually proposed as a common ancestor is a good match. These human forms include fossils dubbed Homo heidelbergensis, Homo erectus and Homo antecessor.  The lines that led to Neanderthals and modern humans branched apart nearly a million years ago, much earlier than studies based on molecular evidence have suggested.