Fragmentary bone fossils and a molar found in Bulgaria dated to roughly 45,000 years ago show that Homo sapiens populations swept into Europe - until then a bastion for the Neanderthals - earlier than previously known, scientists said on Monday.
Researchers engage in excavations at Bacho Kiro Cave where Homo sapiens bones dating back about 45,000 years were recovered along with a rich stone tool assemblage, animal bones, bone tools and pendants near Dryanovo, Bulgaria, in an undated picture released May 11, 2020. Tsenka Tsanova/Handout via REUTERS
Human remains from the cave range from 43,000 to 46,000 years old while associated artifacts were up to 47,000 years old, said paleoanthropologist Jean-Jacques Hublin, director of the Department of Human Evolution at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany. There is a debate over what doomed the Neanderthals, including the possibility that our species wiped them out after thousands of years of interactions including interbreeding that left an indelible mark on the human genome.
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