Is our species special? Humans have long imagined ourselves as entirely separate to the animal kingdom. But new evidence about our closest — and extinct — relatives is forcing us to change how we think.
Fire starters, builders: meet the Neanderthals
Glossary
Stalagmites - These grow upwards when water drips onto cave floors. Stalactites, by contrast, grow downwards when water drips through cave ceilings.
Homo sapiens - The species to which all modern humans belong. Homo sapiens means "wise man" in Latin.
Neanderthals - An extinct hominid species that lived alongside Homo sapiens until around 40,000 years ago. Their ancestry began in Africa, like ours, but neanderthals migrated to Europe and Asia long before humans. They looked like us but were shorter and stockier with angled cheekbones, prominent brows and wide noses.
Brutes - Violently savage people.
Altruism - A devotion to or selfless care for others.