 The publication by Noonan, and his team revealed Neanderthal DNA sequences matching chimpanzee DNA, but not modern human DNA, at multiple locations, thus enabling the first accurate calculation of the date of the most recent common ancestor of "H. sapiens" and "H. neanderthalensis".The research team estimates the most recent common ancestor of their "H. neanderthalensis" samples and their "H. sapiens" reference sequence lived 706,000 years ago (divergence time), estimating the separation of the human and Neanderthal ancestral populations to 370,000 years ago (split time).Based on the analysis of mitochondrial DNA, the split of the Neanderthal and "H. sapiens" lineages is estimated to date to between 
760,000 and 550,000 years ago (95% CI).