Smart Neanderthal - Bird catching, Cave Art, and the Cognitive Revolution Finlayson Clive Director of The Gibraltar Museum and Director of the Institute of Life and Earth Sciences University of Gibr

Since the late 1980s the dominant theory of human origins has been that a 'cognitive revolution' (C.50,000 years ago) led to the advent of our species, Homo sapiens. All non-Africans today carry some Neanderthal genes. As a result of this revolution our species spread and eventually replaced all existing archaic Homo species, ultimately leading to the superiority of modern humans.Or so we thought.As Clive Finlayson explains, the latest advances in genetics prove that there was significant interbreeding between Modern Humans and the Neanderthals.

Finlayson, who is at the forefront of this research, recounts the discoveries of his team, providing evidence that Neanderthals We have also discovered aspects of Neanderthal behaviour that indicate that they were not cognitively inferior to modern humans, as we once thought, and in fact had their own rituals and art.