Until a few months ago, the date when Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis) disappeared from Europe was thought to be 40,000 years ago. A new study, however, has shown that these early hominins could have disappeared earlier.

A scientific paper published in August last year stated that Neanderthals disappeared from Europe between 41,000 and 39,000 years ago. This conclusion was reached based on fossil evidence collected from numerous archaeological excavations ranging from the Black Sea in Russia to the Atlantic coast of Spain.

New research published on Friday in the Journal of Human Evolution indicates that Neanderthals may have disappeared 45,000 years ago. The report, written by a team of researchers led by Bertila Galván, is based on new data found at the El Salt archaeological site, 150km south of Valencia, Spain.