Paleontologists have identified the earliest evidence of Homo sapiens in Europe
Alongside ancient homo sapiens remains were bladelike tools and bear tooth pendants. Researchers believe Neanderthals may have copied these designs later on. (CREDIT: TSENKA TSANOVA, MPI-EVA LEIPZIG, LICENSE: CC-BY-SA 2.0/)Modern humans roamed central Europe at least 45,000 years ago, recent excavations from a cave in Bulgaria indicate. An international team of scientists unearthed tooth and bone fragments which they believe belonged to Homo sapiens. Nearby, the researchers also found tools and pendants similar to ones used thousands of years later by our close relatives the Neanderthals. Together the findings, which the team announced this week in the journals Nature and Nature Ecology and Evolution, help paint a clearer picture of how Homo sapiens arrived in Europe and interacted with the local Neanderthals.Previous studies have shown that Homo sapiens and Neanderthals encountered each other and even interbred; the new findings suggest that Neanderthals may also have imitated artifacts created by their...