UK–(ENEWSPF)–05 February 2013. Since the 1990s, scholars have believed that around 35,000 years ago the last of the Neanderthals sought refuge in southern Iberia, in an area known as Spain today. However, new dating evidence on fossilised bones from sites in the region has cast doubt on this timing. An international team of researchers has obtained new dates, suggesting that the fossils could be 20,000 years older than previously thought. The findings, which have implications for whether Neanderthals and modern humans co-existed, are published in the early edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
