On May 13, 2026, DNA recovered from Neanderthal teeth found in Stajnia Cave in southern Poland shows the oldest known group of Neanderthals ever found in Central Europe, according to a new study.

The study, published in Current Biology, analyzed DNA taken from eight of the nine teeth discovered at the site, finding that at least seven different Neanderthals had lived at the site at one time.

Using molecular branch shortening, a technique that calculates age based on the rate at which DNA mutations accumulate over time, researchers were able to place all seven individuals as living roughly within Marine Isotope Stage 5 (MIS), approximately 130,000 to 71,000 years ago.

Radiocarbon dating was not used as the teeth are from over 100,000 years ago, the study explained.

Notably, three of the teeth – two belonging to children and one to an adult – taken from different sediment layers within the cave, all shared identical mitochondrial DNA. Meaning that they all either belonged to the same individual or that their owners shared a common female ancestor.