Although they were probably apex predators, they still competed with cave bears, cave lions, cave hyenas, and other large predators. Neanderthals made use of a wide array of food, mainly hoofed mammals, but also other megafauna, plants, small mammals, birds, and aquatic and marine resources.

It includes the Mousterian stone-tool industry and ability to create fire and build cave hearths, make the adhesive birch bark tar, craft at least simple clothes similar to blankets and ponchos, weave, go seafaring through the Mediterranean, and make use of medicinal plants, as well as treat severe injuries, store food, and use various cooking techniques such as roasting, boiling, and smoking. 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. For much of the early 20th century, European researchers depicted Neanderthals as primitive, unintelligent, and brutish.

The type specimen, Neanderthal 1, was found in 1856 in the Neander Valley in present-day Germany.

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 unclear when the line of Neanderthals split from that of modern humans studies have produced various intervals ranging from 315,000 to more than 800,000 years ago. The reasons for Neanderthal extinction are disputed, theories include demographic factors such as small population size and inbreeding competitive replacement interbreeding and assimilation with modern humans climate change disease or a combination of these factors. sapiens neanderthalensis), also written as Neandertals, are an extinct species or subspecies of archaic humans 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/ Homo neanderthalensis or H.

Put a header only on first page in word