Archaeologists have discovered rock paintings of 57,000 years ago, which are believed to be by Neanderthals.

CTOnews.com, June 25 (Xinhua) one of the industry consensus about Neanderthals is that they are Homo sapiens who disappeared from the earth 40,000 years ago and are an important part of the history of human evolution.

Archaeologists have found new evidence in France that the caves discovered about 57,000 years ago were carved by Neanderthals.

Archaeologists have found a number of rock paintings in the La Roche-Cotard cave, about 12 miles (20 kilometers) west of Tours, France.

Jean-Claude Marquet, an archaeologist at the University of Tourre, said: "these rock paintings are made of highly applied structured lines. The cave was closed 57000 years ago, before Homo sapiens reached Western Europe, so it can be judged to be Neanderthals."

Pictures of Neanderthal art on the cave wall: Marquet Jmurc, Freiesleben TH, Thomsen KJ, Murray AS, Calligaro M, Macaire JmurJ, et al.CTOnews.com Note: Neanderthals are extinct early Homo sapiens species that still lived in Europe 40,000 years ago. The time for the separation of Neanderthals from modern humans is uncertain, and the time range proposed by the researchers ranges from 31.5 to 800,000 years ago.