For some 200,000 years, Homo sapiens and Neanderthals coexisted on Earth. But then, around 40,000 years ago, Neanderthals disappeared from the fossil record, never to be seen again.
That’s when most archaeologists think our evolutionary cousins went extinct, based on exhaustive reviews of radiocarbon dates associated with Neanderthal fossils and artifacts. There’s no uncontested evidence for the species persisting past that time.
But what if some Neanderthal communities, in remote reaches of Eurasia, lasted longer?
One team of researchers says they’ve found such a case: the site of Byzovaya, in Russia’s Ural Mountains. According to their 2011 study, Neanderthals survived there until about 31,000 years ago — 9,000 years after the presumed extinction date.
Not only would these hardy few constitute the longest-lasting Neanderthals, but they’d also be the farthest north — nearly 700 miles beyond the species’ known northern limit. Seclusion could have shielded the group from extinction, at ...
