The Neanderthals ( Homo sapiens neanderthalensis) were Stone Age hunter-gatherers, who lived in Europe 35,000 to 100,000 years ago. They got their name from the Neander Valley, in Germany, where their first skeletal remains were discovered in 1856. In Britain, they were supplanted by modern humans ( Homo sapiens sapiens) about 40,000 years ago. It is still debated whether the Neanderthals were wiped out violently, died out naturally as a result of environmental changes or increased competition from modern humans, or were absorbed through interbreeding. Find out more

Species of genus Homo that disappeared at the end of the Paleolithic period. (p. 12)