Key quote: The new findings suggest that Neanderthals disappeared from Europe between about 41,000 and 39,000 years ago. "I think that, for the first time, we

Key quote: The new findings suggest that Neanderthals disappeared from Europe between about 41,000 and 39,000 years ago. "I think that, for the first time, we have a reliable extinction date for Neanderthals," said study author Tom Higham, a radiocarbon scientist at the University of Oxford in England. "This has eluded us for decades."