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<i>Homo neanderthalensis</i>, usually just known by the abbreviated term “Neanderthal,” inhabited the Earth, primarily in Europe, but also parts of Asia and north Africa, from about 400,000 to 30,000 years ago. They were once thought to have been the final step in the evolutionary ladder, but today anthropologists believe that although closely related to modern humans, with some modern Europeans and Asians having 1% to 4% Neanderthal DNA, they were not direct ancestors. Research now indicates that the Neanderthals emerged from a common ancestor not long before modern humans and can be specifically tied to a cave in Spain about 400,000 years ago. After emerging as a distinct species, the Neanderthals demonstrated superior intelligence, which was seen in their advanced tool making culture, allowing them to be the dominant species in Europe and parts of Asia for more than 200,000 years.

[[File: homo_tree.jpg|300px|thumbnail|left|Anthropologist Chris Stringer’s Proposed Family Tree of the <i>Homo</i> Genus]]

Before the Neanderthals roamed across Europe and parts of Asia, <i>Homo-erectus</i> was the dominant hominin species on Earth. It first appeared in Africa about two million years ago and lived until at least 108,000 years ago. Scholars was once thought that Neanderthals and modern humans directly evolved from <i>Homo-erectus</i>, although that hypothesis has been challenged in recent years. Neanderthals and modern humans may be directly descended from <i>Homo-erectus</i>, but it may also be that they are just closely related and from collateral branches of the same family tree. <ref> Fergusson, Kennan. “What Was Politics to the Denisovan?” <i>Political Theory</i> 42 (2014) p. 170</ref> The common ancestor of the Neanderthals and modern humans is now believed to have been a sub-species of <i>Homo erectus</i> that many anthropologists now argue was a completely unique species of homo.