For centuries, we’ve imagined Neanderthals as distant cousins. But modern humans and Neanderthals didn’t just cross paths; they repeatedly interbred, shared genes, and even merged populations over nearly 250,000 years.
Neanderthals possessed the vocal machinery for speech and were sufficiently similar to modern humans that multiple instances of successful interbreeding occurred. But their brain structure and possibly their thinking were significantly different.
Inviting a Neanderthal for the holidays? That's a good thing. Not only are they the closest relative of homo sapiens, but there's a bit of Neanderthal in almost all of us. New findings about them are coming thick and fast.
DNA evidence shows that H. sapiens mated with groups including Neanderthals and Denisovans. It even reveals evidence of other “ghost populations” — groups who are part of our genetic code, but whose fossils we haven’t found yet.
Ancient DNA from closely related individuals offers fresh insight into Neanderthals’ lives and social structures.
Scientists have discovered a mutation that increases the production of brain cells and seems to have set our ancestors apart from other hominins.
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A unique perforated bone was found in the Divje Babe cave in Slovenia, in the middle of a palaeolithic layer of earth, near the remains of a Neanderthal fire place, stone and bone tools.
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Watch palaeo-artists as they recontruct and interpret the layers of a Neanderthal skull to arrive at the face of ‘Krijn’, a young man with a conspicuous lump over his right eyebrow.
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