2025 studies expand picture of Neanderthal life, art, diet and interbreeding

More than a dozen high-profile scientific studies in 2025 renewed attention on Neanderthals, the Eurasian hominids that vanished about 40,000 years ago, exploring their diet, symbolic behavior and interactions with early Homo sapiens. Researchers say the work builds on a shift since 2010, when the Max Planck Institute published the Neanderthal genome and showed people of European or Asian descent can possess as much as 4 percent Neanderthal DNA.

That genetic evidence has helped overturn older depictions of Neanderthals as simple brutes. A paper in L’Anthropologie re-examined a 140,000-year-old child from Skhul Cave and, using CT scans and 3-D reconstructions, concluded the skull combined a modern-human‑like braincase with a Neanderthal‑like jaw and inner ear.

The authors, led by Israel Hershkovitz and Anne Dambricourt‑Malassé, argued the features point to earlier and deeper intermingling in the Middle East; the classification of the child remains contentious, and some researchers said DNA could help but is unlikely to be recoverable. Other studies reported varied hunting and butchering practices in Serbia, Israel and Germany, evidence of marrow extraction 125,000 years ago, and a Science Advances analysis of ocher fragments in Crimea and Ukraine that identified a two‑inch yellow “crayon” repeatedly sharpened and likely used for marking.

Key Topics

Science, Neanderthals, Skhul Cave, Max Planck Institute, L'anthropologie, Crimea