article_snippet.sent: Scientists took CT scans of teeth found at Riparo Bombrini in western Ligurian Alps (left) and in the Grotta di Fumane in western Lessini Mountains (right), both in Italy, and found Scientists belonged to ancestors of modern humans who were part of a group known as the Protoaurignacian culture .
article_snippet.sent: Scientists have been able to conclusively show that a pair of ancient baby teeth found at two prehistoric sites in northern Italy belong to modern humans from this culture.
article_snippet.sent: a pair of ancient baby teeth found at two prehistoric sites in northern Italy belong to modern humans from this culture has settled a debate that has raged since they were discovered in 1976, and later in 1992, over whether the teeth and other artefacts found with they were Neanderthal or Homo sapien in origin.
article_snippet.sent: An incisor found in Riparo Bombrini in western Ligurian Alps in 1976, and an upper incisor found in 1992, in the Grotta di Fumane in the western Lessini Mountains in Italy are among only three remains thought to have belonged to the Protoaurignacian culture - an early group of humans.
article_snippet.sent: Dr Benazzi and his colleagues at the CNR Institute of Clinical Physiology in Pisa, Italy, whose work is published in the journal Science found that the enamel on the crown of the teeth was thicker than that found on Neanderthal teeth
article_snippet.sent: Using advanced scanning and DNA analysis, researchers have now been able to prove that these teeth belonged to Protoaurignacian humans and are the oldest modern human remains in Europe.
article_snippet.sent: Dr Stefano Benazzi, an archaeologist at the University of Bologna in Italy said: ‘What the results mean is that these two teeth represent the oldest European modern human fossils currently associated with an Aurignacian-related archaeological context.
article_snippet.sent: ‘Human fossil material is very rare, particularly well preserved deciduous teeth.
article_snippet.sent: There are very few archaeological remains of the Protoaurignacian culture from when they arrived in Europe.
article_snippet.sent: The baby teeth, found at two sites in north Italy shown above, are two of just three Protoaurignacian remains .
article_snippet.sent: Using advanced scanning and DNA analysis, researchers have proved The baby teeth belonged to the Protoaurignacian culture and that researchers are the oldest modern human remains in Europe.
article_snippet.sent: This fragment bird bone was engraved by inhabitants of a rock shelter  at Riparo Bombrini in north west Italy and is now known to have been made by the first modern humans in Europe who arrived 40,000 years ago .
article_snippet.sent: showed CT had thicker enamel than Neanderthal teeth and CT was more similar in morphology to modern humans.
article_snippet.sent: An incisor found in Riparo Bombrini in western Ligurian Alps in 1976, and an upper incisor found in 1992, in the Grotta di Fumane in the western Lessini Mountains in Italy were among only three remains that  thought to have belonged to this early group of humans.
article_snippet.sent: An incisor found in Riparo Bombrini in western Ligurian Alps in 1976, and an upper incisor found in 1992, in the Grotta di Fumane in the western Lessini Mountains in Italy are often depicted as dim-witted evolutionary losers, but Neanderthals were not driven to extinction by An incisor found in Riparo Bombrini in western Ligurian Alps in 1976, and an upper incisor found in 1992, in the Grotta di Fumane in the western Lessini Mountains in Italy lack of brains.
article_snippet.sent: Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology also managed to extract mitochondrial DNA from the tooth found at Grotta di Fumane.
article_snippet.sent: However, Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology results cannot exclude the possibility that the teeth came from individuals who were the result of interbreeding between Neanderthals and modern humans.
article_snippet.sent: One of the teeth was found during an excavation of Grotta di Fumane in northern Italy (shown above). 
highlights_snippet.sent: Two incisors found in northern Italy have been confirmed to belong to modern humans who were part of the Protoaurignacian culture in Europe .
  
highlights_snippet.sent: Researchers used CT scanning and DNA analysis to identify origin of teeth .