New research is challenging what we thought we knew about our prehistoric cousins, the now extinct Neanderthals. DNA from fossils from a cave in Spain show that Neanderthals are almost twice as old as previously thought, having emerged up to 765,000 years ago. The new timelines force a dramatic rewrite of previously held beliefs of our ancient past. Geneticists have examined a collection of fossilized bones that are the remains of a Neanderthal family from the Sima de los Huesos (“pit of bones”) cave in northern Spain. The scientists were able to sequence DNA from a prehistoric tooth and a leg bone —a remarkable technical feat—dating them to between 300,000 and 400,000 years old. The team identified one million to
