ACADEMIC LISTENING TEST PRACTICE
NEANDERTHALS
NEANDERTHALS
For Students Preparing for Academic Tests / IELTS and TOEFL
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The Neanderthal is an extinct species of human that lived in Europe and Asia from around 400,000 to 40,000 years ago. They are closely related to modern humans and are considered to be a separate subspecies of Homo sapiens, known as Homo sapiens neanderthalensis.
Neanderthals were robustly built, with a large skull, strong jaw, and prominent brow ridges. They were also significantly shorter and more muscular than modern humans, with an average height of around 5 feet 5 inches for males and 5 feet for females. They had a large brain size, which was slightly larger than that of modern humans, and were skilled hunters and toolmakers.
The Neanderthal diet consisted mostly of large game animals, such as mammoths and bison, which they hunted using stone-tipped spears. They also ate plant foods and were able to use fire for cooking. They were also skilled at making a variety of stone tools, including hand axes, flint knives, and scrapers.
Neanderthals were also capable of complex behavior, such as burying their dead with ritual and symbolic artifacts, and evidence suggests that they may have had a form of language. They also had a strong social structure and were able to adapt to a wide range of environments, from warm Mediterranean climates to the harsh conditions of Ice Age Europe.
Despite their similarities to modern humans, Neanderthals were not direct ancestors of modern humans. Instead, it is believed that modern humans and Neanderthals share a common ancestor that lived around 600,000 years ago. The two species eventually diverged and evolved along separate lines, with modern humans eventually replacing the Neanderthals.
The exact reason for the Neanderthal extinction is still debated among scientists, but it is believed that a combination of factors, including climate change, competition with modern humans, and possibly disease, may have contributed to their demise.
Today, Neanderthals are of great interest to scientists and researchers, as they provide valuable insights into human evolution and the development of human behavior and culture. Advances in genetic research have also allowed scientists to study the Neanderthal genome and compare it to the genome of modern humans, providing new insights into our evolutionary history.
Overall, the Neanderthal is an important part of human history, and their existence has greatly contributed to our understanding of human evolution and the development of human behavior and culture. Despite the fact that they went extinct tens of thousands of years ago, their legacy lives on through the ongoing research and discoveries being made about them.
Neanderthals were robustly built, with a large skull, strong jaw, and prominent brow ridges. They were also significantly shorter and more muscular than modern humans, with an average height of around 5 feet 5 inches for males and 5 feet for females. They had a large brain size, which was slightly larger than that of modern humans, and were skilled hunters and toolmakers.
The Neanderthal diet consisted mostly of large game animals, such as mammoths and bison, which they hunted using stone-tipped spears. They also ate plant foods and were able to use fire for cooking. They were also skilled at making a variety of stone tools, including hand axes, flint knives, and scrapers.
Neanderthals were also capable of complex behavior, such as burying their dead with ritual and symbolic artifacts, and evidence suggests that they may have had a form of language. They also had a strong social structure and were able to adapt to a wide range of environments, from warm Mediterranean climates to the harsh conditions of Ice Age Europe.
Despite their similarities to modern humans, Neanderthals were not direct ancestors of modern humans. Instead, it is believed that modern humans and Neanderthals share a common ancestor that lived around 600,000 years ago. The two species eventually diverged and evolved along separate lines, with modern humans eventually replacing the Neanderthals.
The exact reason for the Neanderthal extinction is still debated among scientists, but it is believed that a combination of factors, including climate change, competition with modern humans, and possibly disease, may have contributed to their demise.
Today, Neanderthals are of great interest to scientists and researchers, as they provide valuable insights into human evolution and the development of human behavior and culture. Advances in genetic research have also allowed scientists to study the Neanderthal genome and compare it to the genome of modern humans, providing new insights into our evolutionary history.
Overall, the Neanderthal is an important part of human history, and their existence has greatly contributed to our understanding of human evolution and the development of human behavior and culture. Despite the fact that they went extinct tens of thousands of years ago, their legacy lives on through the ongoing research and discoveries being made about them.
Range of Neanderthals
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