The document summarizes key facts about Neanderthals. Neanderthals emerged around 200,000 years ago and lived across Europe and parts of Asia until going extinct around 24,000 years ago. They were well-adapted for cold environments and hunted large game. Evidence indicates Neanderthals used complex stone tools, buried their dead, and had the capability for spoken language. While the exact cause is unknown, their extinction may have been due to competition from modern humans migrating out of Africa.

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Neanderthal Existence
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Neanderthal
Neanderthal knew as the Homo sapiens neanderthalensis /Homo Neanderthalensis, is a
member of the human archaic that emerged in the past two hundred years during the Pleistocene
Epoch (around 2.6 million – 11,700 years ago) (Harvati, 2010). They were assimilated or
replaced by the early modern man (Homo sapiens) between thirty-five thousand and possibly in
the past twenty-four thousand years ago. Neanderthal settled in Eurasia from the Atlantic regions
of Europe, which is eastward toward central Asia, presently known as Belgium, and South of the
Mediterranean and southwest Asia (Harvati, 2010). Similar archaic humans existed during the
same period in eastern Asia and Africa. Neanderthal lived in the land, which had a lot of
limestone caves, which preserved the bones nicely. There has been a massive history of pre-
historic research, which was well known than any other archaic group (Harvati, 2010).
Therefore, they have been known to be archetypal cavemen. The Neanderthal term was derived
from the Neander Valley that is found in Germany, where the fossils were first identified.
Up to the late 20th century, Neanderthal was considered to be genetically,
morphologically, and with distinct behavior from the living human. The recent discoveries of the
Eurasia population's well-preserved fossils showed an overlap between the archaic and the living

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human (Harvati, 2010). The Neanderthal man survived before, and during the Pleistocene's ice
age in most of the unforgiving environments, humans occupied. They successfully developed
culture with complex stone tools technologies centered on hunting with some foraging and
collecting local plants. During the past ten thousand years of glaciation, their existence was an
incredible testament to humans' adaptation.
First Discoveries
The fossil was discovered first in 1856 in the Feldhofer Cave of the Neander Valley
(Harvati, 2010). Lime workers found the quarry's remains, which comprised a tough cranial vault
with a huge curved brow ridge, without a facial skeleton, and numerous limbs' bones. The stem
bone was robustly built, with a huge surface of the articular at the end, and bone shafts were
bowed from the back to the front. Remains of huge extinct mammals and crude tools made of
stone were found in the same manner as the human remains. After the examinations, the
conclusion arrived at by anatomists showed that the ancient human being lived in Europe.
However, others differed and labeled the fossils H.nenaderthalensis, which were different from
H. sapiens.....
Later on, in 19th century to early 20th century, more fossils that looked like the
Neanderthal were discovered from spy caves and Feldhofer in places such as Naulette (Belgium),
Krapina (Croatia), La Chapelle-aux-Saints, Le Moustier, La Quina, and Pech de L' Aze' (France),
Subalyuk (Hungary), Tabun (Israel) among other regions (Harvati, 2010). The complete

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disappearance of Neanderthal corresponds to the most modern glacial maximum, a period with a
strong cold spell and common changes in temperature which started about twenty-nine years ago,
and the increased its occurrence and density in Eurasia by early modern humans, and probably
with their hunting dog (Harvati, 2010).
Classification of Neanderthal
The ancestors presumed of Neanderthal were found at Pit of the Bones the (Sima de Los
Huesos), at Atapuera, Spain, which was dated back to be four hundred thirty years ago, this
produced a remarkable number of the entire life stages (Johansson, 2014). Occasionally, this
fossil is recognized as H.heidelbergensis or the archaic H.sapiens or, in case one recognizes
Neanderthal as H.sapiens Neanderthal, which is the category of the modern man (Johansson,
2014). The descendant presumed of the Neanderthal includes a love child with Neanderthal and
modern man physical features from Lagar Velho, Portugal that is dated back to 24 500 years ago.
Generally, the Eurasian carried two percent Neanderthal nuclear DNA that suggests that modern
man and the Neanderthal reproduced were not distinct species despite most classification
similarly considering them. When a single Neanderthal and modern man species are compared,
Neanderthal could be easily distinguished, but when a wide range of humans is examined, the
observed variation fails to isolate Neanderthal as the distinct set.
Morphological Traits
Craniofacial features

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The Neanderthal man's features are unique, with many variations among individuals from
the head and facial (craniofacial) characteristics. The characteristics of the skull and lower jaw
were existent mostly in Neanderthal man as compared to the early and modern man, such as the
low vaulted cranium, nasal opening and large orbital, and prominent arched brow ridges. The
capacity of the cranial of the Neanderthal was the same as or more significant as compared to
that of modern man. However, front teeth were more prominent as compared to those of modern
man, but molar and premolar were similar in size. The foreman's mental, a small hole within the
skull, permits the nerve to spread to the lower jaw, placed further back in Neanderthal than the
modern man.
Cold stress and body proportion
The Neanderthal was known to be a cold-adapted human. Their facial characteristics,
Neanderthal body proportion were variable. They generally influenced the lower limb limits than
their upper arms and legs and a broader chest. Neanderthal legs and arms could have been
massively and muscled heavily. The kind of physique must have been used to protect the
Neanderthal man from cold stress damages. The cavities of voluminous pulp in the teeth might
also have been among the adaptation features to cold temperature, or either arises from genetic
isolation.

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Communication and Other Adaptation
Up to the 2000s, it was widely reasoned that Neanderthal man lacked complex
communication, such as the spoken language (Stringer et al., 2008). Like modern infants before
attaining two years, Neanderthal did not produce the space sufficient for vowel production used
in all spoken languages by modern man. Furthermore, the studies carried out in the 2000s
involving the Neanderthal gene (FOXP2) showed that Neanderthal probably similarly used
language as the modern man. Such information has been derived from a complex interpretation
of the behavior, for example, the development of the advanced technology of the stone tools, the
burying of the dead, and caring of the injured members. (Stringer et al., 2008) It is yet to be
known whether Neanderthal were proficient in a wide range of phonemes or the sound tones,
which characterized their language to modern man.
A further discovery in 1989 proved that the Neanderthal spoke in a complex language due to the
presence of hyoid bone (Hogenboom, 2013). The hyoid bone enables humans to speak, which is
not the case in animals. However, there is no clear indication of the language the Neanderthal
engage in as no discovery of writings from the era.
Culture of Neanderthal
Compared to the early man who lived in tropical Africa, with abundant edible plant food
that was available in the entire year, the plant food eaten by Neanderthal man dropped
significantly during winter. This forced the Neanderthal to exploit other food options such as
meat. Evidently, Neanderthal hunted their food seasonally by eating animals which included
reindeer and deer. Researchers unveiled the evidence hunting by Neanderthal whereby their
uncovered `sharp wooden spear and significant numbers of huge remains of game animals
hunted by Neanderthal man (Stringer et al., 2008). The evidence from Gibraltar showed that they

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lived in coastal areas whereby they exploited marine resources, for example, fish, seals, dolphins,
and mollusks (Stringer et al., 2008). Analysis of the isotopic chemical of Neanderthal bones also
tells the researcher that the average diet of Neanderthal consisted of meat.
The industry Mousterian stone tool of the Neanderthal is characterized by refined flake
tools that were detached from the prepared stone core. This technology differed from the earlier
man, such as the Acheulean tradition practiced by Homo erectus.
Neanderthal used these tools for activities like sewing and hunting. Additionally,
Neanderthal is known to be the first early man to put on clothes just like a modern man;
researchers have found evidence of the use of bones as the sewing needles to sew their clothes.
Art made by Neanderthal
Recent studies have depicted the Neanderthal as humans who appreciated arts. Arts in
caves have been analyzed to be more than 65 000 years, years before the modern Homo sapiens
existed in Europe (Pike & Standish, 2018). This is a clear indication of the use of cave painting
and art by the Neanderthal. They made personal ornamentation and jewelry discovered in France
dating around 43,000 years ago. Cave paintings have been identified in Spanish caves showing a
ladder-shaped painting made around 64,000 years ago (Pike & Standish, 2018).

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Extinction of Neanderthal
Scientists have speculated the extinction of Neanderthal to the migration of modern
humans to their habitat. The migration of modern humans from Africa in about 60,000 years
were attributed to the end of the Neanderthal about 40 000 years ago (Harvati, 2012). It is still
unclear whether modern Humans led to the death of the Neanderthal or other factors. Further
research had suggested that habitat fragmentation and degradation experienced in the
Neanderthal territory might have led to their death, years before the modern humans arrived
(Harvati, 2012). Thus, no clear definition of the extinction of the Neanderthal has been
identified to date.

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References
Harvati, K. (2010). Neanderthals. Evolution: Education and Outreach, 3(3), 367-376.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12052-010-0250-0
Harvati, K. (2012) What Happened to the Neanderthals? Nature Education Knowledge 3(10):13
https://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/what-happened-to-the-neanderthals-
68245020/
Hogenboom, M. (2013, December 20). Neanderthals 'could speak like us'. BBC News.
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-25465102
Johansson, S. (2014). The thinking Neanderthals: What do we know about Neanderthal
cognition? Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Cognitive Science, 5(6), 613-620.
https://doi.org/10.1002/wcs.1317
Pike, A., & Standish, C. (2018, May 22). It's official: Neanderthals created art. SAPIENS.
https://www.sapiens.org/archaeology/neanderthal-art-discovery/
Stringer, C., Finlayson, J., Barton, R., Fernandez-Jalvo, Y., Caceres, I., & Sabin, R. et al. (2008).
Neanderthal exploitation of marine mammals in Gibraltar. Proceedings Of The National
Academy Of Sciences, 105(38), 14319-14324. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0805474105