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.
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.
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