Neanderthals and their precursor, an early human species called Homo heidelbergensis, were often thought of as violent and uncaring, rejecting newborns with severe deformities.
A recent discovery, however, may change the picture: they might have cared for their disabled children.
Link... a new study shows that a 530,000-year-old fossil skull belonged to a child who lived to around the age of ten despite being born with a rare birth defect known as craniosynostosis, in which the skull segments close too early, interfering with brain development. [...]
Increased pressure on the brain due to the deformity might have led to learning difficulties and health problems such as mental retardation.
"All children need care," noted study team leader Ana Gracia of the Centro UCM-ISCIII de Evolución y Comportamientos Humanos in Madrid. But this child would likely have required "special need care" to have lived as long as it did, she said.
Sarcasm aside:
I've often wondered where that picture comes from hat precursors of humans so far back should have been without compassion and care- Primates and other social animals that live in groups often show compassion and care for disabled members of their group. You don't seem to need human intellect to have such kind of sentiments.
This discovery just pushes evidence of such behavior much farther into the past.
it would be bad if we based our whole theory off that one individual find- but with all the evidence we've found from mulitple burial sites, and what we know of other primates it's not a total stretch to think they were compassionate to some degree.