A groundbreaking new study about the relationship between modern humans and Neanderthals has revealed that the two co-existed in Europe for as long as 5,000 years — 10 times longer than scientists previously believed.
An international team of researchers at Oxford University used highly advanced dating methods to analyze new evidence that has provided an in-depth understanding of how the two species interacted, the BBC reports.
Previous data suggested that humans and Neanderthals lived together in Europe for only around 500 years.
But the recent study, published in the journal Nature, now places the two species walking side by side and exchanging cultural ideas in Europe way earlier than previously thought.
Researchers now believe that Neanderthals died out between 41,000 and 39,000 years ago — 10,000 years before they were believed to have perished.
Another revelation to come out of the study is the possibility that the more advanced human ancestors may not have killed off their distant cousins through slaughter or disease.
Instead of slaughtering their unevolved counterparts because they felt threatened by their existence, Natural History Museum professor Chris Stringer believes the Neanderthals’ downfall can be blamed on a lack of vital resources.
“They were hunting the same animals, collecting the same plants and wanting to live in the best caves,” he said. “So there would have been an economic competition.”
“But it was not an instantaneous extinction,” Stringer added.
“They were not hunted down and killed by modern humans or wiped out by diseases they might have brought with them from Africa. It was a more gradual process.”