‘Earliest known evidence of modern humans in western Europe’

[Eldorado]

The fossil of a child’s tooth is the earliest known evidence of modern humans in western Europe researchers say.

The discovery of the molar was made in a cave – known as Grotte Mandrin – in France’s Rhone Valley.

Researchers say the area also documents the first clear alternating occupation of a site by Neanderthals and early modern humans (Homo sapiens).

Apart from a possible indication in Greece during the Middle Pleistocene – approximately 760,000 to 126,000 years ago – the first settlements of modern humans in Europe have been constrained to around 45,000-43,000 years ago.

But the new evidence – the fossil of an upper molar from a modern human baby – pushes this date back by about 10,000 years, scientists say.

MSN

Edited February 9, 2022 by Eldorado

[Eldorado]

New fossils are challenging ideas that modern humans wiped out Neanderthals soon after arriving from Africa.

The Neanderthals emerged in Europe as far back as 400,000 years ago. The current theory suggests that they went extinct about 40,000 years ago, not long after Homo sapiens arrived on the continent from Africa.

But the new discovery suggests that our species arrived much earlier and that the two species could have coexisted in Europe for more than 10,000 years before the Neanderthals went extinct.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-60305218

[jethrofloyd]

20 minutes ago, Eldorado said:

New fossils are challenging ideas that modern humans wiped out Neanderthals soon after arriving from Africa.

It is a quite possible that Neanderthals disappeared because of the Woolly mammoths also disappeared. Mammoths were by far the most important source of Neanderthal food, and when they disappeared, Neanderthals soon disappeared too.

''Neanderthals and mammoths lived together in Europe during the Ice Age. The evidence suggests that Neanderthals hunted and ate mammoths for tens of thousands of years and were actually physically dependent on calories extracted from mammoths for their successful adaptation,". "Neanderthals depended on mammoths for their very existence.''

[Amorlind]

Awesome !

Two things seem related to the disappearance of the Neanderthal breed...their lack of "social skills", and their huge morphology requesting an enormous consumption of food.

Nevertheless and hopefully they left us a genetic inheritance...i feel proud of this ^^

[Abramelin]

Personally I think the Neanderthals went extinct because of this:

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/10/101006094057.htm

[HandsomeGorilla]

I'm no anthropologist, but I'd always hypothesized that Neanderthals simply melted into the rest of the human population. There was quite a bit of cross breeding, apparently 

[Occupational Hubris]

8 hours ago, HandsomeGorilla said:

I'm no anthropologist, but I'd always hypothesized that Neanderthals simply melted into the rest of the human population. There was quite a bit of cross breeding, apparently 

Likely a combination of factors, but this was definitely one of them. 

Edited February 18, 2022 by Occupational Hubris

[jmccr8]

On 2/17/2022 at 1:37 AM, Amorlind said:

Two things seem related to the disappearance of the Neanderthal breed...their lack of "social skills",

Hi Amorlind

Not sure where you came up with this idea but Neanderthals lived in social groups for half a million years and from what we do know is that there was little difference between them and Hss.

[Abramelin]

10 hours ago, jmccr8 said:

Hi Amorlind

Not sure where you came up with this idea but Neanderthals lived in social groups for half a million years and from what we do know is that there was little difference between them and Hss.

This is where that idea came from:

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/all/brain-comparison-suggests-neanderthals-lacked-social-skills-flna1c8834846

Not very convincing.

[Eldorado]

It took three separate waves of modern humans to colonise Europe between 54,000 and 42,000 years ago.

That is the key conclusion of scientists who have been studying caves in the Rhone valley where they have discovered evidence that Homo sapiens had to make a trio of determined attempts to head westwards and northwards from western Asia before they could establish themselves in the continent.

“The first two of these waves failed but the third succeeded around 42,000 years ago,” said Ludovic Slimak of the University of Toulouse, who is leading the excavations in France. “After that, modern humans took over in Europe. The Neanderthals, who had evolved on the continent, died out.”

The group’s research, published in the journal Plos One, is controversial because it implies that our species settling in Europe took around 12,000 years to complete.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/revealed-modern-humans-needed-three-tries-and-12-000-years-to-colonise-europe/ar-AA1aQOJq?