Since the lower jaw does not have obvious Neanderthal features, the researchers ruled out mixing between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens. But the oldest Homo sapiens fossils from Africa, which predate this lower jaw by more than 100,000 years, have a less pronounced chin than today’s Homo sapiens.

Scientists are considering two possibilities. An unknown group of Homo sapiens may have lived at the same time as Neanderthals. Or a mixture between Homo sapiens and unknown human species. The latter seems less plausible, since the only fossils found from that time were those of Neanderthals.

According to scientists, one thing is certain: the lower jaw proves that Neanderthals were not the only inhabitants of Europe during the period mentioned.