Neanderthals and modern humans ‘did not co-exist’

A LONG-HELD conviction that Neanderthals and modern man co-existed for thousands of years has been discounted in a study led by scientists at University College Cork (UCC).

Dating of a Neanderthal fossil suggests they died out earlier than previously thought, according to research directed by UCC and the University of Oxford in collaboration with the Laboratory of Prehistory at St Petersburg in Russia.

Using a new dating technique on the Neanderthal fossil, which was discovered in a cave in Russia in the northern Caucasus, researchers found it to be 10,000 years older than previous studies had suggested.