In “Prehistoric jawbone has archeologists rethinking history of human habitation” (National Post , November 2, 2011), Randy Boswell reports:
A piece of jawbone with three teeth, excavated nearly 85 years ago from a cave in southwest England, has been painstakingly dated by a team of international researchers — including a Canadian scientist — to between 41,000 and 44,000 years ago, setting the clock back by hundreds or even thousands of years on the migration of early humans to Europe.
The new finding also places the earliest European humans squarely within the timeframe when Neanderthals are known to have inhabited the continent, increasingly the likelihood that the two species interacted or interbred, the researchers conclude in a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature.
The jawbone was found in 1927, but rigorous analysis was only carried out recently. It is stunning. See also: Kent’s Cavern