Neanderthals and Denisovans — Not savage brutes after all

Reconstruction of an elderly Neanderthal, Neanderthal Museum Mettman and Reconstruction of Neanderthal woman (2004) Cro-Magnons Conquered Europe, but Left Neanderthals Alone. PLoS Biol 2(12) e449. httpsdoi.org10.1371journal.pbio.0020449

The year was 1856, miners uncovered some bones in the Neander Valley in Germany. A local schoolteacher recognized these bones as distinct from modern human bones. He gave them to anthropologist Herman Schaaffhausen, who suggested that they belonged to an ancient human. Schaafhausen concluded that these humans were savage cave-dwellers. They were named Homo neanderthalensis or Neanderthals in…