Researchers in Germany have based their findings on an analysis of the complete sequence of DNA present in tiny biological powerhouses -- mitochondria -- of a 38,000-year-old fossilised leg bone of a Neanderthal.

According to them, the strands of DNA extracted from the adult Neanderthal man who lived near caves in what is now Croatia has revealed that they formed a tiny population that had been teetering on brink of extinction 30,000 years ago.

In their study, the researchers repeatedly decoded the mitochondrial DNA from the Neanderthal bone 35 times to be sure that they had the correct genetic sequence, so that they could use it as an accurate comparison against mitochondrial DNA of modern humans and chimpanzees.

“For the first time, we have built a sequence from ancient DNA that is essentially without error.

“It is still an open question for the future whether this small group of Neanderthals was a general feature, or was this caused by some bottleneck in their population size that happened late in the game,” lead researcher Richard Green was quoted by ‘The Independent’ as saying.

Neanderthals first appeared in Europe 300,000 years ago but disappeared after the arrival of anatomically modern humans, Homo sapiens, who arrived in Europe 50,000 years back.

Archaeological evidence shows that Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans, known as Cro-Magnon man, occupied the same habitats and sites at overlapping periods of time but there is no hard evidence that there was any direct contact between the two last species of humans to share living space.

“There’s no proof that they saw each other, only that they inhabited the same place at about the same time but I think it’s likely that they came across one another. We have got tantalising evidence that the Neanderthals formed a small population and we can speculate as to what happened to them.