Access

Letter

Nature 443, 850-853 (19 October 2006) | doi:10.1038/nature05195; Received 12 April 2006; Accepted 25 August 2006; Published online 13 September 2006

Open Innovation Challenges

naturejobs

More science jobs
Post a job for free

Late survival of Neanderthals at the southernmost extreme of Europe

Clive Finlayson1,2, Francisco Giles Pacheco3, Joaquín Rodríguez-Vidal4, Darren A. Fa1, José María Gutierrez López5, Antonio Santiago Pérez3, Geraldine Finlayson1, Ethel Allue6, Javier Baena Preysler7, Isabel Cáceres6, José S. Carrión8, Yolanda Fernández Jalvo9, Christopher P. Gleed-Owen10, Francisco J. Jimenez Espejo11, Pilar López12, José Antonio López Sáez13, José Antonio Riquelme Cantal14, Antonio Sánchez Marco9, Francisco Giles Guzman15, Kimberly Brown16, Noemí Fuentes8, Claire A. Valarino1, Antonio Villalpando15, Christopher B. Stringer17, Francisca Martinez Ruiz11 & Tatsuhiko Sakamoto18

  1. The Gibraltar Museum, 18–20 Bomb House Lane, Gibraltar
  2. Department of Social Sciences, University of Toronto at Scarborough, Toronto, Ontario M1C 1A4, Canada
  3. Museo Arqueologico de El Puerto Santa María, 11500 El Puerto Santa María, Spain
  4. Departamento de Geodinámica y Paleontología, Facultad de Ciencias Experimentales, Universidad de Huelva, 21071 Huelva, Spain
  5. Museo Municipal, 11650 Villamartín, Spain
  6. Institut Catala de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolucio Social, Area de Prehistoria, Universidad Rovira i Virgili, 43003 Tarragona, Spain
  7. Departamento de Prehistoria y Arqueología, Universidad Autonoma, 28049 Madrid, Spain
  8. Department of Plant Biology, Universidad de Murcia, 30100 Murcia, Spain
  9. Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (CSIC), 28006 Madrid, Spain
  10. The Herpetological Conservation Trust, Bournemouth, Dorset BH1 4AP, UK
  11. Instituto Andaluz de Ciencias de la Tierra, CSIC-UGR, 18002 Granada, Spain
  12. Department of Geography, Royal Holloway College, University of London, Egham, Surrey TW20 0EX, UK
  13. Laboratorio de Arqueobotánica, Instituto de Historia (CSIC), 28014 Madrid, Spain
  14. Departamento de Prehistoria y Arqueologia, Universidad de Granada, 18071 Granada, Spain
  15. Area de Prehistoria, Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad de Cádiz, 11003 Cádiz, Spain
  16. Department of Biological Anthropology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3DZ, UK
  17. Department of Palaeontology, The Natural History Museum, London SW7 5BD, UK
  18. Institute for Research on Earth Evolution, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, Yokosuka 237-0061, Japan

Correspondence to: Clive Finlayson1,2 Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to C.F. (Email: jcfinlay@gibraltar.gi).

Top

The late survival of archaic hominin populations and their long contemporaneity with modern humans is now clear for southeast Asia1. 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 doubt2. 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.

  1. The Gibraltar Museum, 18–20 Bomb House Lane, Gibraltar
  2. Department of Social Sciences, University of Toronto at Scarborough, Toronto, Ontario M1C 1A4, Canada
  3. Museo Arqueologico de El Puerto Santa María, 11500 El Puerto Santa María, Spain
  4. Departamento de Geodinámica y Paleontología, Facultad de Ciencias Experimentales, Universidad de Huelva, 21071 Huelva, Spain
  5. Museo Municipal, 11650 Villamartín, Spain
  6. Institut Catala de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolucio Social, Area de Prehistoria, Universidad Rovira i Virgili, 43003 Tarragona, Spain
  7. Departamento de Prehistoria y Arqueología, Universidad Autonoma, 28049 Madrid, Spain
  8. Department of Plant Biology, Universidad de Murcia, 30100 Murcia, Spain
  9. Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (CSIC), 28006 Madrid, Spain
  10. The Herpetological Conservation Trust, Bournemouth, Dorset BH1 4AP, UK
  11. Instituto Andaluz de Ciencias de la Tierra, CSIC-UGR, 18002 Granada, Spain
  12. Department of Geography, Royal Holloway College, University of London, Egham, Surrey TW20 0EX, UK
  13. Laboratorio de Arqueobotánica, Instituto de Historia (CSIC), 28014 Madrid, Spain
  14. Departamento de Prehistoria y Arqueologia, Universidad de Granada, 18071 Granada, Spain
  15. Area de Prehistoria, Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad de Cádiz, 11003 Cádiz, Spain
  16. Department of Biological Anthropology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3DZ, UK
  17. Department of Palaeontology, The Natural History Museum, London SW7 5BD, UK
  18. Institute for Research on Earth Evolution, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, Yokosuka 237-0061, Japan

Correspondence to: Clive Finlayson1,2 Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to C.F. (Email: jcfinlay@gibraltar.gi).

MORE ARTICLES LIKE THIS

These links to content published by NPG are automatically generated.

NEWS AND VIEWS

Palaeoanthropology Return of the last Neanderthal

Nature News and Views (19 Oct 2006)

Age of the modern Europeans

Nature News and Views (30 Nov 1989)

See all 6 matches for News And Views

RESEARCH

Unexpectedly recent dates for human remains from Vogelherd

Nature Letters to Editor (08 Jul 2004)

Placing late Neanderthals in a climatic context

Nature Letters to Editor (13 Sep 2007)

See all 17 matches for Research