Researchers often explain these features as adaptations to conserve heat in a cold climate, but they may also have been adaptations for sprinting in the warmer, forested landscape that Neanderthals often inhabited. Ĭompared with modern humans, Neanderthals had a more robust build and proportionally shorter limbs. Neanderthals were likely capable of speech, possibly articulate, although the complexity of their language is not known. Some claims of religious beliefs have been made. A number of examples of symbolic thought and Palaeolithic art have been inconclusively attributed to Neanderthals, namely possible ornaments made from bird claws and feathers, shells, collections of unusual objects including crystals and fossils, engravings, music production (possibly indicated by the Divje Babe flute), and Spanish cave paintings contentiously dated to before 65,000 years ago.

Although they were probably apex predators, they still competed with cave lions, cave hyenas and other large predators. Neanderthals consumed a wide array of food, mainly hoofed mammals, but also megafauna, plants, small mammals, birds, and aquatic and marine resources. It includes the Mousterian stone-tool industry as well as the abilities to create fire, build cave hearths (to cook food, keep warm, defend themselves from animals, placing it at the centre of their homes), make adhesive birch bark tar, craft at least simple clothes similar to blankets and ponchos, weave, go seafaring through the Mediterranean, make use of medicinal plants, treat severe injuries, store food, and use various cooking techniques such as roasting, boiling, and smoking. In truth, Neanderthal technology was quite sophisticated. Although knowledge and perception of them has markedly changed since then in the scientific community, the image of the unevolved caveman archetype remains prevalent in popular culture. įor much of the early 20th century, European researchers depicted Neanderthals as primitive, unintelligent and brutish.

Theories for their extinction include demographic factors such as small population size and inbreeding, competitive replacement, interbreeding and assimilation with modern humans, change of climate, disease, or a combination of these factors.

The reasons for Neanderthal extinction are disputed. Neanderthals are known from numerous fossils, especially from after 130,000 years ago. The oldest potential Neanderthal bones date to 430,000 years ago, but the classification remains uncertain. The date of divergence of Neanderthals from their ancestor H. It is not clear when the line of Neanderthals split from that of modern humans studies have produced various times ranging from 315,000 to more than 800,000 years ago. The type specimen, Neanderthal 1, was found in 1856 in the Neander Valley in present-day Germany. sapiens neanderthalensis) are an extinct group of archaic humans (generally regarded as a distinct species, though some regard it as a subspecies of Homo sapiens) who lived in Eurasia until about 40,000 years ago. Neanderthals ( / n i ˈ æ n d ər ˌ t ɑː l, n eɪ-, - ˌ θ ɑː l/ nee- AN-də(r)- TAHL, nay-, -⁠ THAHL Homo neanderthalensis or H.

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