Neanderthals Were Our Intellectual Equals | Science News

Science News Today | 2 Min News | The Daily News Now! · Jul 20, 2026 · 1m

New research flips the script on Neanderthals, revealing their brains were likely just as advanced as ours—challenging the myth that modern humans outsmarted them into extinction. Using digital skull scans and deformation mapping, scientists found key brain regions in Neanderthals matched modern human ranges, suggesting any cognitive gap was minimal. In fact, the variation between modern human groups often exceeds the difference between Neanderthals and us. The study also questions past claims about smaller cerebellums, arguing such differences don’t justify the idea of Neanderthal…