By all anthropological accounts, early-modern proto-human hominids like Neanderthals, Cro-Magnon Man, and Homo Habilis bore much closer similarity to Homo Sapiens than any surviving modern simian species. In all likelihood, Neanderthals possessed very similar abilities and comparable intellect to modern human beings. The extinction of Neanderthal man is more likely related to slight differences in suitability for survival after the most recent ice age, or to being out-competed by Homo Sapiens and other animal species in their ecological niche than to any dramatic or fundamental differences between them respectively. In some respects, continual focus on identifying specific reasons for the demise of Neanderthals perpetuates the exaggerated...

Chances are that the Neanderthals were more similar to modern human beings than some of us may wish to acknowledge. Ultimately, we may owe our survival more to sheer luck and circumstances than to anything in particular that makes human beings particularly "special" or fundamentally different from other hominids in ways that can be identified by anthropological finds pertaining to hunting or dietary habits.