Neanderthal

Neanderthals were a distinct group of early humans who lived in Europe and parts of Asia between about 400,000 and 40,000 years ago. They are closely related to modern humans, sharing a common ancestor. Neanderthals had robust bodies and large skulls, with features adapted to cold climates. They made tools, used fire, and likely had social structures. Evidence suggests they practiced burial and may have had symbolic or ritualistic behaviors. Neanderthals went extinct around the time modern humans appeared in Europe, but some genetic traces of Neanderthals remain in non-African human populations today.