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Why are Neanderthals often called cavemen?
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Neanderthal
Artist's rendering of Homo neanderthalensis, who ranged from western Europe to Central Asia for some 100,000 years before dying out approximately 30,000 years ago.
Neanderthals are frequently referred to as "cavemen" primarily because they inhabited regions rich in limestone caves, which provided ideal conditions for the preservation of their bones and fossils.1
Because these cave environments protected their remains so effectively, researchers have been able to study Neanderthals more extensively than any other group of archaic humans. This long history of prehistoric research at these sites—beginning with the 1856 discovery in the Feldhofer Cave in Germany—has led to them becoming the archetypal "cavemen" in popular culture.12