... had a greater chance of becoming fossilized, since they were protected by burial from destruction through erosion, trampling or scavenging. Moreover, it is these caves that can also hint at intricacy on how these Neanderthals became extinct. The Neanderthals are seen to be the best embodied and most studied group in the fossil human record, and were distinguished from all other people, fossil or living, mainly in the skull and face. The Neanderthals gained a popular image of being more primitive than we see them today. The skulls were distinctive, being long and low-doomed like those of Homo erectus, but only moderately bro-ridged and of much larger cranial volume. So far as brain size is concerned, their mean volume was greater than that of modern humans, a fact which may reflect the need to control more musculature than we possess. The face was notable for its huge length and for its ...

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