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Popular media long promoted an image of Neanderthals as being brutal, slow-witted oafs. However, that image has been challenged by recent discoveries. The Neanderthal species was an impressive one in many respects. Neanderthals made a relatively wide variety of tools, including knives, scrapers, and axes; they were the first hominids to create spears. They were also the first to practice ritual burials, and they appear to have supported elderly and infirm members of their communities. Although most Neanderthals did not live beyond their mid-thirties, the skeleton of the "old man" found at La Chapelle-Aux-Saints was over forty, lacked most of his teeth, and had serious deformities. To survive as long as he did, he would have needed care. Our own species developed approximately 100,000 years ago, and we appear to have coexisted with Neanderthals until about 40,000-50,000 years ago, when our population suddenly expanded. About the same time, the Neanderthals declined and, finally, disappeared. No one knows why the Neanderthals vanished, but they survived as a species for over 300,000 years. We have yet to match that record.
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