Neandertals dead at 45 KA, not 30 KA

We know that modern humans and Neandertals interbred at some point. We also know that this was likely in the Middle East somewhere, maybe even where Israel is these days. Most of what I read about the Upper Paleolithic has led me to believe that they probably interacted in Western Europe, but the degree to which they did was fairly uncertain.

Everyone's favorite Neandertal, Ron Perlman

Well, now there's a new paper in PNAS which argues that Neandertals and modern humans never co-existed in Spain. This also means the Neandertals died out a little earlier than was previously believed. An international team of scientists from various universities (Oxford University, Australia National University, Spanish National Distance Education University, University of La Laguna, Archaeological Museum of Lucena, and National Museum of National History) re-dated the sites which are know to be the last known whereabouts of the Neandertals in Spain. These new dates put the sites around 45,000 years ago (originally they were dated to about 30,000 years ago). Archaeological evidence of modern Homo sapiens doesn't appear in Spain until about 5,000 years later. That means modern humans and Neandertals never crossed streams, in Iberia at least.

I imagine that not everyone is going to agree with these findings. Wait for the rebuttles...