5 Things We Know about Neanderthals and Their Thinking

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Neanderthals, our cousins, went extinct about 40,000 years ago. Well sort of that is, Neanderthal DNA can be found in all groups of Homo Sapiens, so they live on in some ways. I’m afraid our president Mr. Biden may have some homework to do when he implied that Neanderthal thinking was slow or backward. Sorry President Biden but your information on this is not up to date.

Here is what we know so far about Neanderthal thinking

There is evidence that Neanderthals were (1) cognitively sophisticated. Our cousins displayed several cognitive abilities that we use to think belonged only to modern human cognition, notably language. Turns out researchers have found that Neanderthals had the vocal apparatus and hearing capabilities need to produce language.

Photo by Kyros Amon in upsplash

Researchers have been able to determine that Neanderthals were skilled at (2) “expert” cognition. This is a form of thinking that relies on long-term procedural memory capabilities. They learned by watching and copying a skilled group/family member, just like us.