Homo neanderthalensis lived in Europe from 600,000 – 30,000 years ago. The first fossil was found near the town of Neanderthal in Germany. Miners found a skull cap or Cranium and their boss showed it to his friend, a scientist. He named it Homo neanderthalensis (“Man from Neanderthal”).
It was five years after Charles Darwin published “The origin of species by means of Natural Selection”, the Neanderthal man gained fame as modern man’s last ancestor. However, Scottish Geneticists discovered that Homo neanderthalensis and Homo sapiens were very similar in DNA. Homo sapiens was 99.9% neanderthal.
Neanderthals had short stubby bodies and wide noses. They are believed to have some sort of religion and language. Female neanderthals had a wider pelvis opening, so they didn’t have much labor as modern females during childbirth.
Anay Ganesh 