Neanderthals

Neanderthals lived mainly in Europe and the Mediterranean lands about 100,000 to 30,000 years ago, during the late Pleistocene Epoch. For many years, it has been debated about whether Neanderthals should be classified as Homo neanderthalensis or Homo sapiens neanderthalensis, the latter placing Neanderthals as a subspecies of Homo sapiens.

Neanderthals are the ancestors that nobody wants, they were always considered the big brutes with clubs and beast-like features. Neanderthal characteristics disappeared from Asia around 50,000 years ago, although they were not extinct in Europe until 33,000 to 24,000 years ago, it could have been 15,000 years after Homo sapiens had migrated into Europe.

The Neanderthal was a species of the Homo genus that lived in Europe and some parts of western Asia. The first of Neanderthal traits appeared in Europe as early as 350,000 years ago and by 130,000 years ago, full blown Neanderthals were in existence. The term Neanderthal Man was coined in 1863 by an Irish anatomist named William King, and The Neanderthal was named after theologian Joachim Neander, he lived a place called Neander valley in the late seventeenth century. When the first Neanderthal remains were discovered, it left anthropologists searching for more background answers for over a 100 years.

Neanderthal skulls were first discovered in Engis, Belgium, in 1829 and in Forbes' Quarry, Gibraltar, in 1848 before the original discovery in a limestone quarry in the Neander Valley in August, 1856. The specimen of Neanderthal referred to as Neanderthal 1, consisted of a skull cap, two femora, three bones from the right arm, two from the left arm, part of the left ilium, fragments of a scapula, and ribs. This discovery is considered the beginning of paleoanthropology. This and other discoveries led to the idea that these remains were from ancient Europeans who had played an important role in our modern human origins. Some scientists, argue that fossil evidence suggests that Homo sapiens and the Neanderthals interbred, and therefore they were the same biological species. Others, say that isn't true and that no evidence has been found of cultural interaction. Either way since then, the bones of over 400 Neanderthals have been found.

Original Neanderthal fossils have been found over a large amount of area. From northern Germany to Israel and Mediterranean countries like Spain and Italy in the south and from England in the west. This area probably was not occupied all at the same time, the northern border of their range especially would have contracted a lot with the onset and offset of cold periods. However, the northern border of their range which is represented by fossils may not be the real northern border of the area that they had occupied, since Middle-Palaeolithic looking artifacts have been found even further up north.

Compared to modern humans, Neanderthals are shorter in size and had distinctive morphological features, especially with the cranium. Evidence suggests that they were also much stronger than us modern humans, their relatively robust figure is imagined to be an adaptation to the