The most late commons of Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans has so far proved baffling . A recent study bring out in theProceedings of the National Academy of Sciencesused quantitative method to focus on the shape of dental fogy - and found that NO known fossil species is compatible with a recent common ancestor . All late Early and Middle Pleistocene ( 2.59 million year to 781 to 126 thousand year ago ) hominin   taxa from Europe were show to have swinish dental chemical attraction . The researchers also ascertain grounds supporting an early divergence between Neanderthals and mod homo , as early as 1 million years ago . This is 500,000 age earlier than late estimates .

The field ’s author used approximately 1,200 molars and premolars from 13 mintage of hominins . They used proficiency in morphometric analysis ( the social organisation of their features ) and in phylogenetic statistic ( the evolutionary relationships between groups of an being ) to restore the dental morphology of the last common antecedent of Neanderthals and mod humans .

None of the hominins which are commonly suggest as a common ancestor were find to become . Often propose antecedent include Homo heidelbergensis , H. erectus and H. antecessor , but none had a dental sound structure full compatible with the geomorphology bear of an ascendent of both humans and Neanderthals .

The field also find that the possible human ancestor detect in Europe have structural features that make them closer to Neanderthals than to mod humans . This evidence suggests that the lineage that run to Neanderthals rise around 1 million years ago , while the discrepancy of man took place in the beginning than mentation . Previous studies had place the divergence between 350,000 and 500,000 years ago .

The authors of this Modern enquiry also reason that quantitative and statistical methods are a better way of determining human stock than descriptive analyses done in the yesteryear . Their methodology may also be used to study other body parts that are represented in the hominin fossil record .

The next footfall to potentially identifying the unwashed ascendent could come from contemplate hominin fossils from Africa , though the fossil record from that special era is meagre . The generator of the study believe that their quantitative approach aids the testing of hypotheses that use the dental fogy record . The same approach could be apply to other skeletal component using 2D and 3D representations of the morphology of the species .