Neanderthals

Neanderthals Latest News

A recent study supports the view that Neanderthals were not wiped out in a dramatic extinction, but were instead genetically absorbed into the emerging human population over thousands of years.

About Neanderthals

• They were an extinct relative of modern humans once found across Europe, extending into Central and Southwest Asia.
• Species: Homo neanderthalensis
• The name Neanderthal (or Neandertal) derives from the Neander Valley in Germany, where the fossils were first found.
• They are the closest extinct relatives of modern humans (Homo sapiens).
• Scientific evidence suggests our two species shared a common ancestor.
• Neanderthals were closely related to another group of extinct, little-known human relatives called the Denisovans.
• Current evidence from both fossils and DNA suggests that Neanderthal and modern human lineages separated at least 500,000 years ago.
• The last populations of Neanderthals are thought to have died out roughly 40,000 years ago, several thousand years or so after a wave of modern humans migrated deeper into Europe.
• Although they are long extinct, their genes are still present in modern human DNA. 

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Neanderthals Features

• Some defining features of their skulls include the large middle part of the face, angled cheek bones, and a huge nose for humidifying and warming cold, dry air. 
• Their bodies were shorter and stockier than modern humans, another adaptation to living in cold environments.
• But their brains were just as large as modern humans and often larger-proportional to their brawnier bodies.
• Their bones reveal that they were extremely muscular and strong, but led hard lives, suffering frequent injuries.
• Unlike modern humans, Neanderthals didn’t have much of a chin.
• Neanderthals made and used a diverse set of sophisticated tools, controlled fire, lived in shelters, made and wore clothing, were skilled hunters of large animals, ate plant foods, and occasionally made symbolic or ornamental objects. 
• Around 300,000 years ago Neanderthals developed an innovative stone technology known as the Levallois technique. 
  • This involved making pre-shaped stone cores that could be finessed into a finished tool at a later time. 
• There is evidence that Neanderthals deliberately buried their dead and occasionally even marked their graves with offerings, such as flowers.
• No other primates, and no earlier human species, had ever practiced this sophisticated and symbolic behavior.

Source: IDR