A long-running argument between archaeologists and geneticists has finally been settled – and the answer could help explain why Neanderthals went extinct
To find out who was right, the team analysed isotopes from Thorin’s bones and teeth to determine what type of climate he lived in. It turned out the archaeologists were right – Thorin was from the ice age, and so he lived around 40,000 to 45,000 years ago.
However, the existence of this much older genome led to a startling discovery. It proves that Neanderthals diverged into two distinct genetic groups more than 100,000 years ago – and remained separate until around the time they went extinct.
