Neanderthal Enigma
Neanderthals were the first fossil humans to be discovered, in the mid-nineteenth century. Their ancestral status was doubted at first, but later accepted. The relationship of Neanderthals has long been debated. The question was, Were they ancestral to modern humans, or an extinct side branch? Most anthropologists now believe the latter to be correct, a view that is bolstered by recent genetic evidence.
Neanderthals, everyone's favorite "caveman," lived in much of Europe, part of Asia, and the Middle East between 150,000 to probably just less than 30,000 years ago (these last occurrences were observed in western Europe). The first fossil humans to be discovered, Neanderthals have long been the focus of anthropological investigation. More bones of Neanderthals are known than for any other fossil hominin group, including some 30 nearly complete skeletons, so this preoccupation within the anthropological profession is understandable.
Figure 27.1 Neanderthal anatomy.
In addition to questions about Neanderthals' daily life, two important issues have occupied anthropologists: Who were the Neanderthals' ancestors? And what was the Neanderthals' fate? Hypotheses about Neanderthals' evolutionary status (particularly their fate) have shifted back and forth in the century and a half since the first bones were unearthed. At times, they have been viewed as the direct ancestors of modern Europeans; at other times, they have been regarded as a side branch of the human evolutionary tree, with extinction as their fate. Today, the latter is the most widely supported hypothesis.
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