Neanderthal quiz: How much do you know about our closest relatives?

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Think you know everything about Neanderthals? Take our quiz to find out.

A picture shows the rebuilt skull of a 75,000-year-old Neanderthal woman, named Shanidar Z, after the cave in Iraqi Kurdistan where her skull was found in 2018, at the University of Cambridge, eastern England, on April 25, 2024.
The skull of a Neanderthal woman known as Shanidar Z. (Image credit: JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP via Getty Images)

Almost two centuries after the first Neanderthal was discovered, we are still learning a great deal about our ancient relatives. Neanderthals weren't the cave-dwelling, knuckle-dragging brutes they were once made out to be; in fact, they looked and acted a lot like us. Experts continue to debate exactly what Neanderthal society looked like and when it vanished, but the picture of who the Neanderthals were is becoming increasingly clear.

How much do you know about the origins and history of Neanderthals? Let's test your knowledge of our closest human relatives.

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Kristina Killgrove
Kristina Killgrove
Staff writer

Kristina Killgrove is a staff writer at Live Science with a focus on archaeology and paleoanthropology news. Her articles have also appeared in venues such as Forbes, Smithsonian, and Mental Floss. Kristina holds a Ph.D. in biological anthropology and an M.A. in classical archaeology from the University of North Carolina, as well as a B.A. in Latin from the University of Virginia, and she was formerly a university professor and researcher. She has received awards from the Society for American Archaeology and the American Anthropological Association for her science writing.