One of the earliest examples of Homo Sapiens found in the course of human evolution was the Neandertal. Neandertals appeared roughly 250,000 years ago and existed until around 30,000 years ago, inhabiting primarily Europe and parts of the Middle East. Physiologically, Neandertals resembled present day Homo Sapiens in many ways, but also displayed a great deal of differences from more modern members of the species. Intellectually, socially and culturally, however, there remained significant distance between Neandertals and …showed first 75 words of 805 total…

…showed last 75 words of 805 total…developed stage of evolution, displaying less advanced versions of human culture, society and intelligence (despite having larger brains than humans do). While coexisting with Homo Erectus and humans (and outlasting the former), it is still unclear what exactly drove Neandertals into extinction. Possibilities include the merging of Neandertals and existing human species, the natural extinction of Neandertal for some reason or other, or even that of the human species killing off Neandertals. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ **Bibliography** books