Neanderthals and sapiens were longtime neighbours in Europe

Far from wiping out Neanderthals overnight, modern humans lived alongside their shorter and stockier cousins in Europe for thousands of years, confirms a new study. Using new radiocarbon dating techniques, a team of international scientists show Neanderthals overlapped with present-day humans in Europe for between 2600 and 5400 years before disappearing about 40,000 years ago. The findings overturn previous theories that suggest late-surviving groups of Neanderthals lived in places such as Gibraltar later than 40,000 years ago.