Try, try and try again: why did modern humans take so long to settle in Europe?

Homo sapiens migrated to the continent in waves - but the reasons for their early failures to overcome Neanderthals are a mystery

Modern humans made several failed attempts to settle in Europe before eventually taking over the continent. This is the stark conclusion of scientists who have been studying the course of Homo sapiens's exodus from Africa tens of thousands of years ago.

Researchers have recently pinpointed sites in Bulgaria, Romania and the Czech Republic where our ancestors' remains have been dated as being between 40,000 to 50,000 years old. However, bone analyses have produced genetic profiles that have no match among modern Europeans.