研究人員一直在爭論,，大約4萬年前，當(dāng)現(xiàn)代人入侵尼安德特人位于歐洲和亞洲的家園后,，后者到底又堅(jiān)持存在了多長時(shí)間,。一些人認(rèn)為至少有1萬年的光景，而有些人則相信尼安德特人幾乎立刻就滅絕了,。
如今,，對位于俄羅斯的一個(gè)尼安德特人遺址進(jìn)行的一項(xiàng)新的放射性碳測年研究顯示，后一種假設(shè)的可能性最大,。
英國科學(xué)家開發(fā)出了一種名為“超級篩選”的測年技術(shù),，結(jié)果顯示，沒有尼安德特人在距今39000年后依然幸存,。研究人員在5月9日的美國《國家科學(xué)院院刊》（PNAS）網(wǎng)絡(luò)版上報(bào)告了這一發(fā)現(xiàn),。然而專家指出,，不要指望這一爭論會(huì)就此完結(jié)。（生物谷Bioon.com）
生物谷推薦原文出處：
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.
