The arrival ofHomo sapiens in the cold northern latitudes took place several thousand years before the disappearance of the Neanderthals in south-western Europe.
An international research team led by Prof. Jean-Jacques Hublin has announced the discovery ofHomo sapiens fossilsin the Ilsenhöhle cave in Ranis, Germany, in the journal Nature. These fossils are the oldest directly dated ever discovered in Europe. They date back over 45 000 years and are associated with a stone industry known as Lincombian-Ranisian-Jerzmanowician (LRJ). The LRJ, which falls between the Middle Paleolithic associated with Neanderthal and the Upper Paleolithic produced by Homo sapiens, is known from Poland to the British Isles. However, until now, its craftsmen remained totally unknown. It was the combined use of fossil protein and ancient DNA analysis that enabled their remains to be detected amidst the thousands of animal bone fragments unearthed at the site. The Ranis discoveries prove that small groups ofHomo sapiens were present in north-western Europe several millennia before Neanderthals disappeared from the southern part of the continent. Probably thanks to their greater adaptability, they survived in less hospitable areas, amid landscapes comparable to those of present-day northern Scandinavia.
