Neanderthal man

A form of fossil human that lived in Europe and western Asia between about 200 000 and 30 000 years ago, when the climate was much colder than today. Neanderthals were thought to be a subspecies of Homo sapiens but are now generally regarded as a distinct species, H. neanderthalensis. The fossil remains indicate that Neanderthals were fairly short, strongly built, and had low brows but that the brain size was the same as, or larger than, modern humans'. They were nomadic cave dwellers who buried their dead. Neanderthals became extinct abruptly; they may have been exterminated by incoming modern humans, with their more advanced stone tool technology. The name is derived from the site in the Neander valley, Germany, where fossils were found in 1856.

A Dictionary of Biology. Oxford University Press, 2004.