Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon skulls. The Neanderthal skull (left) was found at La Ferrassie,France,in 1909,and is thought to be around 70,000 years old. The other skull is Cro-Magnon 1,found as Les Eyzies,France,in 1868,and dated to 30,000 years ago. Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons cohabited in Europe between about 40,000 and 30-25,000 years ago,when the former died out. Neanderthals had occupied the region from as far back as 350,000 years ago. Cro-Magnons were anatomically similar to modern humans,and are their ancestors. It is not known for sure what caused the extinction of the Neanderthals,but competition with the advanced Cro-Magnons is unlikely to have helped their cause |