A number of questions have been raised as a result of the studies pertaining to Neanderthal man. Like modern man, the Neanderthals are classified as homo sapiens. This distinguishes them from the homo erectus creatures which preceded them. Descriptions of Neanderthal man indicate that he "was normally chinless, had prominent brow ridges and a receding forehead, but his brain was as large as modern man's" (1:159). At the same time, however, the Neanderthals were clearly different in many ways from modern man. In fact, there is evidence that when the Neanderthals became extinct, they were replaced by Cro-Magnon man. The Cro-Magnons are essentially the same as modern man. By contrast, the remains of Neanderthal man seem to possess characteristics which are both primitive and modern. The fossil evidence indicates that the Neanderthals co-existed for a while with Cro-Magnon man. Thus, many archaeologists have questioned whether the Neanderthals and the Cro-Magnons are somehow linked to one another. There is little doubt that the Neanderthals represent an important turning point in prehistoric times. After their disappearance, modern human civilizations arose in their wake. Some scientists believe that the Neanderthals became extinct because they gradually evolved into the Cro-Magnons. Others suggest that the Cro-Magnons were an entirely separate group and that modern man arose as a result of interbreeding between the two.
The first Neanderthal bones were discovered in 1856 in the Neander Valley of Western Germany. Dr. Karl J. Fuhlrott was responsible for salvaging the remains from a quarry dump. However, an anatomist named Hermann Schaafhausen was the first to make a scientific description of the bones. Studying the skull fragments and the other skeletal pieces, Schaafhausen reached the conclusion that they represented the remains of a human being. However, Schaafhausen also observed that there were some non-human char...