SCIENTISTS may finally have confirmed what every woman from Raquel Welch to Wilma Flintstone has always suspected.

Even back in prehistoric times, the female of the species was very much the boss.

A study has found evidence of "alpha" cavewomen roaming the plains and calling the shots while the menfolk slobbed at home.

The discovery could put paid to the belief that cavemen were the aggressive, violent go-getters in the relationship between the sexes.

Raquel Welch, the doeskin-bikini-clad heroine of One Million Years BC, may well have got her movie portrayal spot on.

Alpha cavewoman appears to have travelled far wider than her male counterpart, the research detailed in the journal Nature shows.

She may even have been the one who went out clubbing, so to speak, reversing the popular perception that it was the bloke who bashed the girl on the head and dragged her home by the hair.

The Oxford University researchers used lasers and advanced technology to analyse enamel from fossilised teeth found in cave systems a mile apart in South Africa.

The incisors and canines came from two species of cave-dwellers who walked on two legs.

The teeth were studied for traces of strontium, a mineral that works its way into teeth from the food we eat. Those traces were then compared with the mineral-providing plants and rocks in surrounding areas.

This revealed almost all the men lived and died in the area where they grew up. But half the women were from outside. Females were five times more likely than males to have travelled away from home.

Oxford professor Julia Lee-Thorp said the difference between males and females was "completely unexpected".

Originally published as Alpha cavewoman loved clubbing