Late survival of Neanderthals at the southernmost extreme of Europe

Abstract

The late survival of archaic hominin populations and their long contemporaneity with modern humans is now clear for southeast Asia. In Europe the extinction of the Neanderthals, firmly associated with Mousterian technology, has received much attention, and evidence of their survival after 35 kyr bp has recently been put in doubt. Here we present data, based on a high-resolution record of human occupation from Gorham's Cave, Gibraltar, that establish the survival of a population of Neanderthals to 28 kyr bp. These Neanderthals survived in the southernmost point of Europe, within a particular physiographic context, and are the last currently recorded anywhere. Our results show that the Neanderthals survived in isolated refuges well after the arrival of modern humans in Europe.

The ‘extremely ancient’ chromosome that isn’t: a forensic bioinformatic investigation of Albert Perry’s X-degenerate portion of the Y chromosome

“…In reality, the human phylogenetic tree contains a large gap between chimpanzee and Ardipithecus ramidus (4.3-4.4 million (m) ya) and smaller gaps in the nearest human tree, making it difficult to infer potential interactions. Nonetheless, it is clear that in the past million years, several lineages including perhaps the Homo erectus ('Java man') (0.6-0.2 mya), Homo heidelbergensis ('Heidelberg Man') (735-230 kya), 41 Homo rhodesiensis (400-110 kya), 42 and Homo neanderthalensis ('Neanderthal') (400-30 kya) 43,44 coexisted and interbred with each other leading to the appearance of the first AMH. In the Middle Paleolithic (B100-200 kya), AMH like the Omo (195 ± 5 kya) 9 and the Homo sapiens idaltu (160-154 kya) 45,46 evolved from these archaic Homo sapiens and persisted alongside modern humans.…”

Increased seasonality in the Western Mediterranean during the last glacial from limpet shell geochemistry

“…The predominant limpet species found within the caves are the intertidal Patella vulgata, Patella caerulea and Patella ferruginea (Fa (in press)) (the latter is now highly endangered and could not be sampled for modern calibration). Gorham's Cave is a site of particular archaeological interest as it has yielded evidence of the most recent existence of living Neanderthals at 28,000 years BP (Finlayson et al, 2006) making it a highly relevant site at which to investigate climate and its possible influence on the behaviour and extinction of Neanderthals, and the behaviour of early Anatomically Modern Humans (early individuals of Homo sapiens). at Eastern Beach, a short way to the north (Fig.…”

“…In Gibraltar, Neanderthals and Anatomically Modern Humans have gathered molluscs for food for the last~120 kyrs BP, transporting them inland to cave sites where they have been discovered in recent excavations at sites such as Gorham's Cave (Fa (in press); Finlayson et al, 2006;Stringer et al, 2008). The predominant limpet species found within the caves are the intertidal Patella vulgata, Patella caerulea and Patella ferruginea (Fa (in press)) (the latter is now highly endangered and could not be sampled for modern calibration).…”

The Red Sea, Coastal Landscapes, and Hominin Dispersals

“…Similar evidence has been recovered from sites in Gibraltar and elsewhere in the Mediterranean associated with Neanderthals. At Vanguard Cave in Gibraltar, marine mollusc shells have been recovered from Last Interglacial deposits, along with bones of sea mammals and some fish vertebrae (Finlayson et al, 2006;Finlayson, pers. comm.).…”