Neanderthal DNA may refute 65,000-year-old date for human occupation in Australia, but not all experts are convinced

A light-colored wall of rock marked with bright orange drawings of a stick person and a hand.

Humans did not arrive in Australia 65,000 years ago, and likely didn't reach the land down under until around 50,000 years ago, a controversial new paper reports.

The reasoning behind the finding is that modern humans didn't mate with Neanderthals until around 50,000 years ago, but Indigenous Australians have a small percentage of Neanderthal DNA. So, the first Australians could not have arrived until after humans mated with Neanderthals.