TIME

Neanderthals

≈ 400,000 years ago

A museum diorama of a Neanderthal woman with long dark hair lying on animal furs and looking down at a small child, against a rock wall.

Early HumanityNeanderthals

A distinct human lineage.

Neanderthals were a distinct human lineage that lived across Europe and western Asia. They made sophisticated tools and interbred with Homo sapiens.

Fossils reach back about 430,000 years. They disappeared about 40,000 years ago, and many people today carry a little of their DNA.

400,000 years ago, placed on the scale of its era on a line leading toward now.

Era
Early Humanity
Period
≈ 400,000 years ago
Edition
1/1
Status
Not Released
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Background artwork

Cinematic background showing a cave shelter by a fire in a snowy valley. An illustration generated with an AI image tool for TIME. It is an artistic depiction, not a photograph or a record of the moment. The figures are imagined.