There was a time before us in which another species roamed the Earth. This species wasn’t an animal, but yet another form of human. This early species was called the homo-neanderthalensis. We know them as the Neanderthals.
Neanderthals were typically short, around 5′-5’5ft. and stumpy with a big nose. At a glance, they looked like caveman with their broad shoulders and limbs, and some were. Although, Neanderthals were an advanced species. Their brains were large, as big as modern day humans and they lived from 400,000 to 40,000 years ago. They were the closest species we had to us as homo-sapiens.
Neanderthals are known for living in harsh, cold conditions. Researchers say that the weather conditions are why the species had the build that they did. They were the first humans to survive these conditions. It worked out for them because their body physique helped them retain heat.
The interesting thing about Neanderthals is that they were advanced enough to make clothes, shelter, and tools made of bone. They even were able to cultivate the first known culture. Nobody knows how they disappeared, although there’s faint traces of DNA tied to Neanderthals existing in some people today. It could be inferred that they ended up interbreeding with humans. In recent research done by North Carolina University, they found that the interbreeding took place in the region from North Africa to Iraq. They may be more similar than you already think, with them also being (almost entirely) right handed. It’s always interesting to learn about the past, because we can truly gauge how much has changed.
