The last Neandertals?

A new find pushes the date for the last Neandertals in southern Iberia to 28 K B.P., but John Hawks advises some skepticism. I'd listen to Hawks, he's a pro, but, I would also assume it is important to remember that normally the first and last appearance of a species in the fossil record often does not capture the full time span of its existence. If you read my posts about introgression you will likely intuit that I still find the new work interesting because of the possibility of long term spatial mosaicism between Neandertals and H. sapiens sapiens. Interestingly, Erik Trinkaus has come out with an analysis of the hominid lineage which offers that Neandertals were less derived than we moderns, that is, they are not the "side branch" with specialized features, we are!