Scientists have reported on genomic data from a 23,000-year-old individual who lived in what was probably the warmest place of Europe at the peak of the last Ice Age.

The study reported on the data from Cueva del Malalmuerzo, souther n Spain, as well as the 7,000 to 5,000-year-old genomes of early farmers from other wellknown sites, such as Cueva de Ardales, Spain.

The international team of researchers analysed ancient human DNA from several archaeological sites in Andalucia, southern Spain.

The oldest human genome recovered from the southern tip of Spain adds an important piece of the puzzle to the genetic history of Europe, the researchers said.

After an organism’s death, its DNA is only preserved for a certain period of time and under favourable climatic conditions.

Extracting DNA from ancient remains from hot and dry climates is a huge challenge for researchers.

In Andalucia, in the south of present-day Spain, climatic conditions are similar to those in North Africa - however, DNA has successfully been recovered of 14,000-year-old human individuals from a cave site in Morocco.

The current study fills crucial temporal and spatial gaps, it said.

The researchers can now directly investigate the role of the southern Iberian Peninsula as a refuge for Ice Age populations and potential population contacts across the Strait of Gibraltar during the last Ice Age, when sea-levels were much lower than today, they said.

The genetic ancestry of individuals from central and southern Europe who lived before the Last Glacial Maximum, which is 24,000 to 18,000 years ago, differs from the ones who recolonised Europe afterwards.

However, the situation in western Europe has not been clear until now due to a lack of genomic data from critical time periods.

The 23,000-year-old individual from Cueva delMalalmuerzo near Granadafinally adds data from the time when large parts of Europe were covered by massive ice sheets, the study said.