Devon cave holds clues to 'earliest Europeans'

A piece of jawbone excavated from a prehistoric cave in England is the earliest evidence for modern humans in north-west Europe, according to an international science team.

New dating of the bone, which shows that it is between 44,000 and 41,000 years old, is expected to help scientists pin down how quickly modern humans spread across Europe during the last Ice Age.

The findings, published in the journal Nature, help to confirm the much debated theory that early humans co-existed with Neanderthals.

Nick Powe, the owner of Kents Cavern in Torquay, gives a tour of the caves in which the jawbone was found in 1927.