Neanderthal Man
The discovery in 1856 of fossils called Neandertal aroused controversy around their classification. Some of these fossil hominids resemble less to Homo erectus, his predecessor, that the current H. sapiens. So some prefer to consider it a subspecies of modern man, calling it H. sapiens neandertalensis.
Neanderthal is the name by which is known the subspecies Homo neandertalensis, who lived in certain areas of Europe, Middle East and Africa between 115,000 and 35,000 years ago and that, then abruptly disappeared. The Neandertal name - or Neander Valley near Düsseldorf, Germany, where they found the first fossils - was awarded to the entire subspecies, which later were identified traces similar in other parts of Europe as well as in Asia , the Middle East and north Africa.
The forerunners of European Neandertals may date back to the glacial period Riss (150,000 to 100,000 years ago). The most recent, that there is more remains, dating from the Würm glacial period (85,000 to 35,000 years ago). The Neanderthal is the precursor of Cro-Magnon man, representative of H. sapiens prehistoric. The species characteristics vary according to the region from which the fossils. In general, the Neanderthals were stocky, short in stature and powerfully built, with upper and lower limbs bent, which gave them a still imperfect bipedal posture. They had low braincase, elongated and bulky. The face also great but chinless, had massive brow ridges and low cheekbones.
They lived preferably in caves, whose entrances protected with stones, but in some places built shelters outdoors. They knew the fire and were good hunters of herbivorous and carnivorous animals. Sometimes also they fished and fed on mollusks. They made stone tools, wood and bone. Everything indicates that practiced cannibalism. Buried their dead individually or in groups and certain ritualistic treatment indications animals that are found remains from the human skeletons, suggest the existence, since then, a primitive religion.
The Neanderthals became extinct in the time that science could not fix exactly. Some scholars attribute their disappearance to the difficulty to survive the rigors of a new glacial period.
