The earliest Neanderthal cave paintings ever have been found

The markings are believed to have been formed thousands of years ago

Neanderthals roamed the Earth thousands of years ago and although lots is known about how they lived, scientists are still uncovering new information about their lives.

New research shows they used their fingers to leave markings on the walls of a cave in France 57,000 years ago - long before the arrival of modern humans to that region, according to scientists.

The special engravings, made up of lots of dots, stripes, and lines, are believed to be one of the oldest forms of art created by the group.

A technique called finger fluting was used to create the artwork

Neanderthals would have swept their fingers across the once soft walls of the cave, which is found in La Roche-Cotard in France, to form the artwork.

It's a technique known as finger fluting, although it's not clear what the marks were actually for, or what they mean.

The Neanderthal art is thought to be among one of the oldest creations of its kind in western Europe. It was created across eight separate panels on the upper part of the cave wall.

"The majority of the traces on these panels were made by fingers laid flat... while a few rare traces appear to have been made by a finger on edge (on the side)," the new research says.

Research shows the entrance of the cave had been sealed by sediments at least 51,000 years ago.

Scientists believe this was the last time humans and other large animals would have been able to access the cave, until it was rediscovered much later at the beginning of the 20th century.

"The engravings could only have been made by Neanderthals," Jean-Claude Marquet from the University of Tours in France who is one of the authors of the study, told the New Scientist.

"Most importantly, the cave entrance was closed thousands of years before Homo sapiens are known from the area. The artwork itself is probably even older, at around 75,000 years old."