1 March 2021
Virtual reconstructions of Neanderthal ears show that our extinct cousins had the same physical capacity for hearing as modern humans, and so could probably also make the same sounds we can – although whether they actually spoke a language is still unknown
27 May 2020
Some people carry a chunk of Neanderthal DNA that appears to reduce the chance of miscarriage and increase fertility
11 May 2020
The first modern humans to settle in Europe made pendants out of bear teeth – and a few thousand years later, Neanderthals started doing it too
9 April 2020
A piece of string found in a cave in France is the oldest ever discovered and shows that Neanderthals knew how to twist fibres together to make cords
26 March 2020
The fossilised remains of the food found in one of the few remaining coastal Neanderthal sites in Europe show they ate plenty of seafood, fish and nuts
18 February 2020
A Neanderthal skeleton unearthed in a cave in Iraq shows signs of having been deliberately buried – more evidence our cousin species behaved a little like we do
30 January 2020
Neanderthals never lived in Africa, but traces of their DNA persist in the genomes of people of African ancestry today, and the amount of Neanderthal DNA in people of European ancestry has been underestimated
22 January 2020
Footprints on an extinct Italian volcano suggest ancient humans were regular visitors, and the shapes of the tracks point to the identity of the trackmakers
27 November 2019
Modern humans have long been in the frame for driving our Neanderthal cousins to extinction, but random chance may explain their downfall
8 November 2019
A dispute over the dating of prehistoric Spanish cave paintings is fuelling a fractious debate over Neanderthals’ artistic capabilities
