Human evolution expert Prof Chris Stringer has studied Neanderthals his entire career. Here, he tells us what scientists have uncovered about the lifestyle of these early humans, their distinctive characteristics and what they were like.
We know more facts about Neanderthals than any other extinct humans. Many thousands of their artefacts and fossils have been found, including several nearly complete skeletons.
.jpg)
We also know about their genetic make-up, as several Neanderthal genomes have now been reconstructed from ancient DNA obtained from their fossils.
Neanderthals were humans like us, but they were a distinct species called Homo neanderthalensis.
Read Chris Stringer's argument for why Neanderthals should be considered a separate species from Homo sapiens >
Together with an Asian people known as Denisovans, Neanderthals are our closest ancient human relatives. Scientific evidence suggests our two species shared a common ancestor.
Current evidence from both fossils and DNA suggests that Neanderthal and modern human lineages separated at least 500,000 years ago. Some genetic calibrations place their divergence at about 650,000 years ago.
Both dating issues and fossil anatomy mean that scientists are currently uncertain whether the last common ancestor of Neanderthals and modern humans was Homo heidelbergensis, Homo antecessor or another species.
Neanderthals lived alongside early modern humans for at least part of their existence. We now know that some encounters were very intimate - some of us have inherited around 2% Neanderthal DNA.