When, where, and how Neanderthals (Homo sapiens neandethalensis) first stepped onto the stage of human prehistory is a hotly debated topic. Even more sensitive is determining how closely related Neanderthals – a subspecies of Homo sapiens – were to our direct ancestor, Cro-Magnon man (Homo sapiens sapiens). It appears Neanderthals used some form of language, believed in an afterlife, and cared for their sick and injured. They were physically more robust then we are and had larger brains, yet they disappeared and we survived. Why?

The first Neanderthal fossil was found in 1856 in the Neander Valley, near Dusseldorf, in Germany, hence Neanderthals. The name "neanderthal" is now applied to a group of fossil hominids which share certain features in common and which are known to have lived during a fairly narrow period of time in our not-too-distant past. Most Neanderthals have been uncovered in Europe, but there are some other sites more distant, like Iraq and Russia.

We know that for many years, the Neanderthals and more modern humans lived in the same places, meaning there was coexistence. The dates of various fossils tell us this. In Europe, this period lasted for a few thousand years. In southwest Asia, the period may have been tens of thousands of years. There was plenty of time for them to get to know (or hate!) one another.

We look at the skull closely because it’s here that we find the main distinguishing features. As the skull was generally longer and wider, the average cranial capacity of the Neanderthals is found to be slightly larger than modern humans. We can’t necessarily say that the Neanderthals were smarter because they had bigger brains. In fact, there’s some evidence to suggest that they might have been dumber than modern humans who lived at the same time. However, only 20% of us have a cranial capacity greater than the Neanderthal average.

Looking at skull differences, we can identify several areas of significance. The cranial vault in the Neanderthals is described as a flat top head basically, whereas modern humans have a more domeshape to the cranium. With regards to the forehead, the Neanderthals have a more sloping or pushed backed forehead, whereas the modern humans have a more vertical forehead. Another difference is in the brow ridge. The brow ridge in the Neanderthal is fairly prominent and in the modern humans, it is less pronounced or absent. Also, the incisors in the Neanderthals are larger than modern humans. The chin in the Neanderthals is a small, "receding" chin, and the modern humans have a more definite, prominent chin. Finally, the "occipital bun" is a distinguishing feature. The Neanderthals possess a bulge at the back of the skull, in the occipital region, whereas, in the modern humans, this bulge is absent.

It has been suggested that they disappeared because they are our direct ancestors, meaning that they evolved into modern humans. There is plenty of evidence to trash this idea. The existence of anatomically modern human fossils dated as old as 100,000 B.P. suggests that the Neanderthals aren’t on "line" to us, because both modern humans and the Neanderthals lived side by side for many thousands of years. The DNA evidence backs this idea up.

It’s highly likely that Neanderthals hunted game, which tells us several things. First, they would have needed to keep on the move, to keep up with migrating animals. Secondly, they would have had to store food for the times when game animals were not plentiful. Finally, they would have needed reasonable tools to kill and butcher their prey.

Were Neanderthals really "cave men"? In a sense, yes. There is evidence to suggest that they did use caves and rock shelters to store food. What’s really significant, is that the tools made by the Neanderthals were streets ahead of anything produced by hominids before them. Up until this time, no tools had been made with stones that had been preshaped before being chipped. Prior to the Neanderthal Mousterian technology, tools had been fashioned from whatever rock came along. The Neanderthals knew what sort of tool they wanted and they shaped the rock in a basic kind of way, before starting to strike and chip the "core". This new technique permitted new types of tools to be made, each with new and different uses.

For now, we generally considered that along the pathway to modern humans, the Neanderthals arose as a last-minute side branch of the evolutionary tree; a branch with a dead end. They never made it to the modern era. The Neanderthals evolved from our ancestors, but we are not on the same line as them.