研究人员一直在争论，大约4万年前，当现代人入侵尼安德特人位于欧洲和亚洲的家园后，后者到底又坚持存在了多长时间。一些人认为至少有1万年的光景，而有些人则相信尼安德特人几乎立刻就灭绝了。
如今，对位于俄罗斯的一个尼安德特人遗址进行的一项新的放射性碳测年研究显示，后一种假设的可能性最大。
英国科学家开发出了一种名为“超级筛选”的测年技术，结果显示，没有尼安德特人在距今39000年后依然幸存。研究人员在5月9日的美国《国家科学院院刊》（PNAS）网络版上报告了这一发现。然而专家指出，不要指望这一争论会就此完结。（生物谷Bioon.com）
生物谷推荐原文出处：
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences DOI： 10.1073/pnas.1018938108
Revised age of late Neanderthal occupation and the end of the Middle Paleolithic in the northern Caucasus
Pinhasi, Ron; Higham, Thomas F. G.; Golovanova, Liubov V.; Doronichev, Vladimir B.
Advances in direct radiocarbon dating of Neanderthal and anatomically modern human (AMH) fossils and the development of archaeostratigraphicchronologies now allow refined regional models for Neanderthal–AMH coexistence. In addition, they allow us to explore theissue of late Neanderthal survival in regions of Western Eurasia located within early routes of AMH expansion such as theCaucasus. Here we report the direct radiocarbon (14C) dating of a late Neanderthal specimen from a Late Middle Paleolithic (LMP) layer in Mezmaiskaya Cave, northern Caucasus.Additionally, we provide a more accurate chronology for the timing of Neanderthal extinction in the region through a robustseries of 16 ultrafiltered bone collagen radiocarbon dates from LMP layers and using Bayesian modeling to produce a boundaryprobability distribution function corresponding to the end of the LMP at Mezmaiskaya. The direct date of the fossil (39,700± 1,100 14C BP) is in good agreement with the probability distribution function, indicating at a high level of probability that Neanderthalsdid not survive at Mezmaiskaya Cave after 39 ka cal BP ("calendrical" age in kiloannum before present, based on IntCal09 calibrationcurve). This challenges previous claims for late Neanderthal survival in the northern Caucasus. We see striking and largelysynchronous chronometric similarities between the Bayesian age modeling for the end of the LMP at Mezmaiskaya and chronometricdata from Ortvale Klde for the end of the LMP in the southern Caucasus. Our results confirm the lack of reliably dated Neanderthalfossils younger than ?40 ka cal BP in any other region of Western Eurasia, including the Caucasus.
