According to the DNA analysis, most Neanderthals in Western Europe died out as e

Neanderthals were already on the verge of extinction in Europe by the time modern humans arrived on the scene, a study suggests. [24D]DNA analysis suggests most Neanderthals in Western Europe died out as early as 50,000 years ago — thousands of years before our own species appeared. A small group of Neanderthals then recolonised parts of Europe, surviving for 10, 000 years before vanishing. An international team of researchers studied the variation, or diversity, in mitochondrial DNA extracted from the bones of 13 Neanderthals. The work is published in the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution.