Modern humans, or homo sapiens, weren’t previously known to have lived as far north as the region where the tools were made. “The Ranis cave site provides evidence for the first dispersal of Homo sapiens across the higher latitudes of Europe. It also shows that Homo sapiens, our species, crossed the Alps into the cold climes of northern and central Europe earlier than thought. Using the same technique, the team also managed to identify human remains among bones excavated during the 1930s. However, the protein analysis was only able to identify the bones as belonging to hominins — a category that includes Homo sapiens and Homo neanderthalensis, or Neanderthals.

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Persons: weren’t, ”, Jean, Jacques Hublin, Max Planck, Marcel Weiss, Friedrich, “, hominins, neanderthalensis, Elena Zavala, ” Zavala, denning, Dorothea Mylopotamitaki “, Sarah Pederzani, William E, Banks, ” Banks, wasn’t Organizations: CNN, Max, Max Planck Institute, Alexander University Erlangen, Evolutionary Anthropology, University of California, University of La, University of Bordeaux Locations: Europe, Ranis, Germany, France, Paris, Leipzig, Moravia, Poland, British, Nürnberg, Berkeley, Siberia, Eurasia, University of La Laguna, Spain, “