This supports the theory first advanced several years ago that the arrival of early modern humans in Europe may have stimulated the Neanderthals into copying aspects of their symbolic behaviour in the millennia before they disappeared. (sciencedaily.com)
Neanderthals had large brains and made complex tools but never demonstrated the ability to draw recognizable images, unlike early modern humans who created vivid renderings of animals and other figures on rocks and cave walls. (sciencedaily.com)
«The new timing rules out earlier modern humans in the Middle East [from participating] in the admixture,» says Janet Kelso from the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig, Germany, one of the lead researchers on the project. (newscientist.com)