Members of a species of Middle Palaeolithic hominid who emerged between 200,000 and 100,000 years ago and were replaced by early modern humans between 35,000 and 28,000 years ago. Neanderthals inhabited Eurasia; similar human populations lived at the same time in eastern Asia and Africa; however, because Neanderthals lived in a land of abundant limestone caves that they used for shelters, their bones were preserved and they are thus better known than some other archaic members of Homo. In some classifications, Neanderthals are listed as a subspecies of humans (Homo sapiens neanderthalensis).
