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Homo neanderthalensis Skull, Forbes Quarry Gibraltar

Homo neanderthal
Forbes Quarry Skull, Gibraltar

This reconstruction of a Homo neanderthalensis skull was found in 1848 at Forbes' Quarry in Gibraltar some 8 years before the discovery of a similar skull in the Neander Valley, Germany. Neanderthal is an extinct variety of human that lived throughout Europe and in parts of western Asia and northern Africa during the late Pleistocene Epoch, until about 30,000 years ago. Neanderthals had a stocky build and large skulls with thick eyebrow ridges and big teeth. They usually lived in caves, made flaked stone tools, and were the earliest humans known to bury their dead. Neanderthals were either a subspecies of modern humans (Homo sapiens neanderthalensis) or a separate, closely related species (Homo neanderthalensis). They coexisted with early modern humans (Cro-Magnons) for several thousand years before becoming extinct, but are not generally believed to have interbred with them.