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Battle for the Earth - When Humans Encountered Neanderthals. Neanderthals were long derided as knuckle-draggers, but new discoveries are setting the record straight. As we rethink the nature of the Neanderthals, we could also learn something about our own humanity. Neanderthals were extremely physically strong and fast – certainly stronger than the vast majority of humans living today. And yes, they went extinct just after our own species entered their territories. But neither fact means they were sluggish or cognitively inferior to us humans. Much has also been made of the coupling of Neanderthal extinction with the entry of anatomically modern Homo sapiens into Europe at the beginning of the Neandertal extinction. Some anthropologists believe it is a mere coincidence, primarily because there is little or no evidence for war or direct competition between these two human types. These “twist of fate” anthropologists further argue that Neandertal brains and behavior were the absolute equivalents of modern H
