Definition
Homo neanderthalensis is the hominin species that occupied Europe and western Asia between roughly 400,000 and 40,000 years ago. Named for the Neander Valley in Germany where the type specimen was found in 1856, Neanderthals are the best-known and most-studied extinct hominins, with hundreds of skeletons, dozens of complete or near-complete genomes, and extensive archaeological evidence for their behaviour.
Neanderthals were robust, cold-adapted humans with brains as large as or larger than modern humans (mean ~1500 cc), heavy brow ridges, a projecting midface, large nasal aperture, and a powerful musculoskeletal build. They made Mousterian stone tools, hunted large game, used fire, buried their dead in some contexts, and produced occasional symbolic artefacts.
Why it matters
Where they show up
Neanderthal fossils have been recovered from sites across Europe (La Chapelle-aux-Saints, Neander, La Ferrassie, El Sidron, Vindija) and western Asia (Shanidar, Tabun, Amud, Kebara). Some specimens, like Shanidar 1, show healed injuries that suggest care of disabled individuals. Others, like the El Sidron group, show probable cannibalism. The behavioural range is broad.
Genetic data places Neanderthal populations within a relatively narrow geographic range, with limited gene flow between regional groups. The famous Neanderthal genome project, led by Svante Pääbo's team, established the field of paleogenomics and rewrote understanding of human-Neanderthal interaction.