Evidence of Europe’s first Homo sapiens found in French cave

Archæologists say they have found evidence that Homo sapiens lived briefly in a rock shelter in southern France — before mysteriously vanishing. New research suggests that distinctive stone tools and a lone child’s tooth were left by our species during a short stay some 54,000 years ago — and not by Neanderthals, who lived in the rock shelter for thousands of years before and after that time. The Homo sapiens occupation, which researchers estimate lasted for just a few decades, pre-dates the previous earliest known evidence of the species in Europe by around 10,000 years. But not everyone is convinced, and the tooth’s DNA has not been analysed to confirm its origins.