Once upon a time, not so long ago, we looked at Neanderthals as hairy, ape-like cave dwellers that were clearly sub-human. We were wrong about a lot of that. They did live in caves, when there was a cave around, but those were pretty good shelters, really. We've since discovered that Neanderthals weren't at all stupid, as a group. They had sophisticated tools and social structures, and were similar enough to modern humans to interbreed with them. These discoveries are based in study and not just on the fact that most of us are part Neanderthal and want to make our ancestors look good. Neatorama readers already know a lot of the revisions in our view of Neanderthals, but do you know how they got their name? Did you know about the red light in the sky they must have witnessed? In this video, Weird History goes over some fascinating facts on what we've learned about Neanderthals.
FUN FACT: They were originally called Meanderthals because they used to meander all around the place but somebody changed it to Neanderthals just because.
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