They lived from the Mediterranean to Siberia and south to Gibraltar. Neanderthals flourished from about 400,000 years ago until their mysterious and hotly debated extinction 40,000 years ago. There's also their enormous range in time, space, environments, and climates. They interbred with Homo sapiens: "Current data finds between 1.8 and 2.6 per cent Neanderthal DNA in everyone except those of sub-Saharan heritage." So, they were both alike and different, but in exactly what ways is frustratingly unclear. First, Neanderthals were both "recognizable as a kind of human, but decidedly unconventional." They represent "two diverging pathways of being human." Their brains were as big as ours. This requires a nuanced approach for a number of reasons. Rebecca Sykes's magisterial volume rejects these caricatures in her complex and fascinating history of what we have learned about Neanderthals since 1856.
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