
-
Max power, Tsunoda's mixed debut, quick Kimi: Japan GP talking points
-
Luis Enrique's revolution leaves PSG stronger without the superstars
-
Messi on target but Miami held by lowly Toronto
-
Inter's bold treble bid bumps up against past glory at Bayern Munich
-
Sagstrom digs deep to win LPGA Match Play
-
The music industry is battling AI -- with limited success
-
New app hopes to empower artists against AI
-
Haiti jazz festival is rare respite for violence-racked capital
-
Johnson satisfied after opening Grand Slam series event
-
China would have agreed TikTok deal if not for US tariffs: Trump
-
Harman keeps calm in the winds to clinch Texas Open
-
Doncic scores 30 as Lakers rout Thunder
-
Qualifier Brooksby stuns Tiafoe to win first ATP title
-
McLaughlin-Levrone seals Grand Slam jackpot with 400m victory
-
Juventus miss out on Serie A's top four with Roma draw
-
Marseille, Strasbourg win in Ligue 1 to close in on Champions League
-
Pegula wins WTA Charleston after Kenin collapse
-
Second US child dies of measles, almost 650 ill: officials
-
Thousands attend funeral of legendary Malian musician Amadou
-
Gaza rescuers say Israeli strikes kill 44
-
Alcaraz admits pressure to take Sinner's number one ranking 'killed' him
-
US storms, 'devastating' flooding death toll climbs to 17
-
Ovechkin achieves the 'impossible'
-
Ovechkin scores 895th goal to clinch all-time NHL record
-
Siraj's 4-17 helps Gujarat to hat-trick of IPL wins
-
Man City held by Man Utd in derby stalemate
-
'Minecraft Movie' strikes gold to dominate N.America box office
-
Strasbourg close in on Champions League with Ligue 1 win at Reims
-
Toulouse overpower Sale to reach rugby Champions Cup last eight
-
Slot shocked by sloppy Liverpool errors in Fulham defeat
-
Juric urges Southampton to learn from record-setting relegation
-
Italian director Moretti leaves hospital after heart attack
-
Chelsea's 'unfair' schedule to blame for Palmer axe: Maresca
-
Barrios grabs Atletico late Liga win at Sevilla
-
Le Pen slams 'witch hunt', vows not to give up at Paris rally
-
Liverpool's rare loss delays title march, Southampton relegated
-
World scrambles to temper Trump tariffs: White House
-
Southampton relegated from Premier League in record time
-
Fulham end Liverpool unbeaten league run to delay title party
-
Torrential rains kill dozens in DR Congo capital
-
Pogacar wins Van der Poel duel at cycling's Tour of Flanders
-
Djokovic plays down Monte Carlo hopes after eye infection
-
Israel targets Hezbollah in south Lebanon as US envoy visits
-
Bumrah 'available' for Mumbai's IPL clash with Bengaluru
-
Bordeaux book Champions Cup quarter-final with victory over Ulster
-
Israel's Netanyahu ends Hungary visit, heads to US
-
Fiji and New Zealand seal sevens wins in Singapore
-
Recovering Pope surprises crowd at Vatican square
-
UK readies to protect industry as US tariffs upend global order: Starmer
-
Tsunoda has 'mixed feelings' after 12th-place Red Bull debut
JRI | -7.19% | 11.96 | $ | |
SCS | -0.56% | 10.68 | $ | |
BCC | 0.85% | 95.44 | $ | |
GSK | -6.79% | 36.53 | $ | |
AZN | -7.98% | 68.46 | $ | |
NGG | -5.25% | 65.93 | $ | |
BTI | -5.17% | 39.86 | $ | |
RBGPF | 100% | 69.02 | $ | |
BCE | 0.22% | 22.71 | $ | |
RELX | -6.81% | 48.16 | $ | |
CMSC | 0.13% | 22.29 | $ | |
RIO | -6.88% | 54.67 | $ | |
VOD | -10.24% | 8.5 | $ | |
RYCEF | -18.79% | 8.25 | $ | |
BP | -10.43% | 28.38 | $ | |
CMSD | 0.7% | 22.83 | $ |

Study places Homo sapiens in Europe earlier than thought
Homo sapiens ventured into Neanderthal territory in Europe much earlier than previously thought, according to an archaeological study published in Science magazine on Wednesday.
Up to now, archaeological discoveries had indicated that Neanderthals disappeared from the European continent about 40,000 years ago, shortly after the arrival of their "cousin" Homo sapiens, barely 5,000years earlier and there was no evidence of an encounter between these two groups.
The new discovery, by a team of archaeologists and palaeoanthropologists led by Ludovic Slimak of Toulouse University, pushes back the arrival of Homo sapiens in Western Europe to around 54,000 years ago.
Another remarkable finding of the research is that the two types of humans alternated in inhabiting the Mandrin cave in what is now the Rhone region of southern france.
The Mandrin site, first excavated in 1990, includes layer upon layer of archaeological remains dating back over 80,000 years.
"Mandrin is like a kind of neandertalian Pompeii, without catastrophic events, but with continuous filling of sands in the cave deposited progressively by a strong wind, the Mistral," Slimak told AFP.
His team uncoevered a layer, known as the "E layer", containing at least 1,500 cut flint points, more finely executed than the points and blades in the layers above and below.
Very small in size, some of them less than a centimetre in length, these points "are standardised, to the nearest millimetre, something we haven't seen at all with Neanderthals," said Slimak, a specialist in Neanderthal societies.
These, he explained, were probably arrowheads, unknown in Europe at that time.
He attributes this production to a culture called Neronian, linked to several sites in the Rhone area.
- Milk tooth discovery -
In 2016, Slimak and his team visited the Peabody Museum in Harvard to compare their discoveries with a collection of carved fossils from the Ksar Akil site at the foot of Mount Lebanon, one of the major sites of the expansion of Homo sapiens to the east of the Mediterranean.
The similarity between the techniques used convinced Slimak that the findings at the Mandrin site were the first traces of Home Sapiens found in Europe.
A milk tooth found in the "E layer" confirmed his suspicions.
In all researchers found nine teeth at the Mandrin cave site, belonging to six individuals.
These ancient teeth were entrusted to Clement Zanolli, a palaeoanthropologist at the University of Bordeaux.
Using microtomography, similar to medical scanning technology, the verdict was clear.
The milk tooth from the "E" layer" was the only modern human tooth found at the site.
That "fossil molar from a modern human child provides the earliest known evidence of modern humans in western Europe", the Natural History Museum in London said in a statement.
- Co-existence? -
The archaeological team then used a pioneering technique, fuliginochronology, which analyses layers of soot impregnating the walls of a cave and the traces of ancient fires.
The reachers demonstrated that "this Modern human population occupied this Rhone territory for some 40 years," said Slimak.
At some point, the two populations either co-existed in the cave or on the same territory, the researcher concluded.
He imagines that Neanderthals could have served as guides to Homo Sapiens to lead him to the best sources of flint available, some of which were located up to 90 kilometres (55 miles away.
"Nothing new under the sun… This is precisely what happened when Europeans began the colonization of the Americas or Australia," he noted.
"The findings from Mandrin are really exciting and are another piece in the puzzle of how and when modern humans arrived in Europe,? concludes Professor Chris Stringer, co-author of the study and a specialist in human evolution at the Natural History Museum in London.
"Understanding more about the overlap between modern humans and other hominins in Eurasia is vital to understanding more about their interactions, and how we became the last remaining human species," he added.
This overlap, which was evident in Mandrin, now places the Rhone region as a "major migration corridor (for Homo sapiens) enabling them to reach the Mediterranean and continental European areas", said Slimak, who promises more discoveries from the Mandrin site.
L.Torres--PC