They are one of our closest human relatives and dominated Europe and much of Asia for hundreds of thousands of years, but Neanderthals may be far older than previously thought.

A new study by geneticists has revealed a collection of fossilised bones discovered in a cave in northern Spain belonged to an early member of the Neanderthal family.

It is the oldest partial genome from early human fossils ever to be sequenced and pushes back the date for the origins of the Neanderthal branch of our evolutionary tree by up to 300,000 years.

Geneticists have sequenced DNA from the fossilised remains (pictured) of early humans discovered in a cave in the Atapuerca Mountains in Spain. The 430,000-year-old-bones were found to belong to an early Neanderthal and the analysis suggests the species may be up to 765,000 years old - twice as old as previous estimates

Anthropologists had believed Neanderthals first evolved around 400,000 years ago, possibly from another early human species called Homo heidelbergensis.

However, analysis of a collection of the 430,000-year-old bones discovered in the Sima de los Huesos, or pit of bones, in the Atapuerca Mountains in Burgos, Spain, show they belong to Neanderthals.

THE COMPLEX EVOLUTION OF MAN 55 million years ago - First primates evolve 15 million years ago - Hominidae (great apes) evolve from the ancestors of the gibbon 8 million years ago - First gorillas evolve. Later, chimp and human lineages diverge 5.5 million years ago - Ardipithecus, early 'proto-human' shares traits with chimps and gorillas 4 million years ago - Australopithecines appeared. They had brains no larger than a chimpanzee's 2.8 million years ago - LD 350-1 appeared and may be the first of the Homo family 2.7 million years ago - Paranthropus, lived in woods and had massive jaws for chewing 2.3 million years ago - Homo habalis first thought to have appeared in Africa 1.85 million years ago - First 'modern' hand emerges 1.8 million years ago - Homo ergaster begins to appear in fossil record 1.6 million years ago - Hand axes become the first major technological innovation 800,000 years ago - Early humans control fire and create hearths. Brain size increases 760,000 years ago - New DNA analysis shows the first Neanderthals emerging 400,000 years ago - Neanderthals begin to spread across Europe and Asia 200,000 years ago - Homo sapiens - modern humans - appear in Africa 40,0000 years ago - Modern humans reach Europe Advertisement

And the DNA analysis, say the researchers, suggests Neanderthals must have emerged well before this time.

According to the journal Science, Dr Matthias Meyer, a palaeogeneticist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany who led the work, suggests Neanderthals, and their relatives the Denisovans, could have split from their common ancestor with modern humans up to 765,000 years ago.

Mutations and differences in the DNA can provide scientists clues about how old a species may be compared to modern humans.

Speaking at the conference of the European Society for the Study of Human Evolution, he said: 'Our results place the Sima de los Huesos hominins on the Neanderthal evolutionary lineage.

'In congruence with previous morphological analysis, they show that the Neanderthal/Denisovan population split predates 430,000 years ago, the geological age of the Sima remains.

The findings could lead to a dramatic shake up of the current shape of the human family tree.

Modern humans – Homo sapiens - were only thought to have emerged in Africa around 200,000 years ago before rapidly spreading around the world.

Their close relatives Homo neanderthalensis were thought to have then evolved in Eurasia from a common ancestor.

The new study suggests these two species may have diverged far earlier than previously thought.

The fossils found at Sima de los Huesos have been controversial for some time after researchers couldn't agree whether they should be classified as Neanderthal or Homo heidelbergensis.

However mitrochondrial DNA from one of the bones suggest they were more closely related to Denisovans, an extinct type of early human found in Siberia.

Researchers have spent decades studying the remains found in the 'Pit of Bones', reconstructing the skull shown in the GIF above, which revealed it had suffered a heavy blow to the head before death

THE NEW HOMO NALEDI SPECIES The findings come just days after anthropologists announced the discovery of a new species of early human called Homo naledi, which was found in a cave in South Africa's Gauteng province. The species was found to have both human and ape-like qualities. It had a brain the size of a gorilla and distinctive ape-like fingers, but may have stood upright on two legs. Most intriguingly, scientists believe the extinct human species may have buried its dead as the remains of up to 12 individuals were found in tiny inaccessible cave. Advertisement

New techniques are finally allowing scientists to extract and sequence nuclear DNA – the genetic material found in the centre of all cells in the body – in ancient fossils

For the recent study, Dr Meyer and his team were able to obtain 1 to 2 million base pairs of ancient nuclear DNA from a tooth and leg bone from Sima de los Huesos.

These were then scanned for unique markers found only in Neanderthals, Denisovans or Homo sapiens.

The Sima fossils were additionally found to have far more of these unique markers for Neanderthals than the other species.

Professor Chris Stinger, a palaeoanthropologist at the Natural History Museum in London, told Mail Online the results had implications for the origins of our own species too.

He said: 'There has been a lot of debate about how deep in time the Neanderthal-sapiens split was, with estimates ranging from about 800,000 to 300,000 years ago.

'I've recently favoured a split time of about 400ka, and have argued for many years that the widespread species Homo heidelbergensis at about 500 ka was probably the last common ancestor of Neanderthals and Homo sapiens.

'As Matthias Meyer explained, when the new data is used to recalibrate divergences you arrive at older split times both between the Neas and Denisovans (around 450,000 years ago) and for their lineage and ours (650,000 years ago).

'This suggests that if Homo heidelbergensis fossils do lie on the ancestry of the later species, this group must already have split by 500,000 years ago into a proto-Neanderthal/Denisovan line and a proto-sapiens line.

'Alternatively, we might have to consider that many or all of the "heidelbergensis" fossils are not on the direct lines of descent after all, and they are an off-shoot.'

The fossils found at the Sima de los Huesos site in Spain's Atapuerca Mountains (shown on map) have been highly controversial but are now the oldest human remains to have had genetic information sequenced

Scientists previously claimed the bones (skull pictured) were either Neanderthal or an older species of human called Homo heidelbergensis. The DNA has settled the debate by identifying them as Neanderthal

The findings come just days after anthropologists announced the discovery of a new species of early human called Homo naledi, which was found in a cave in South Africa's Gauteng province.

The species was found to have both human and ape-like qualities. It had a brain the size of a gorilla and distinctive ape-like fingers, but may have stood upright on two legs.

Most intriguingly, scientists believe the extinct human species may have buried its dead as the remains of up to 12 individuals were found in tiny inaccessible cave.