Live Chat: How Human Were Neandertals?

Our views of Neandertals have swung wildly over the years. Scientists once regarded them as dimwitted brutes—we still use the epithet "Neandertal" to refer to clueless, sexist guys—but recent research shows that they were skilled toolmakers, had a complex social organization, and made sophisticated use of the caves and other spaces they lived in. Still, human evolution experts continue to debate how similar Neandertals were to Homo sapiens in their cognitive and symbolic capacities: Did they have language? Did they bury their dead? Did they make art? Just how "human" were they?

Join us for a live chat on how we compare to our closest evolutionary cousins at 3 p.m. EDT on Thursday, 25 October, on this page. You can leave your questions in the comment box below before the chat starts. The full text of the chat will be archived on this page. news.sciencemag.org/