an extinct Palaeolithic species of human that inhabited Europe widely between 120,000 and 35,000 years ago, characterized by a receding forehead and prominent brow ridges, and producing flints worked on one side only
Neandert(h)al(er) is an early form of human being, named after a site in the Neander Valley (or Tal) near Düsseldorf, Germany, where its robust fossil bones were uncovered in 1856. It is an archaic form of Homo sapiens, known as Homo sapiens neanderthalensis, characterized by a large brain, massive brow-ridges, a receding chin, and a heavy muscular build. Neanderthals occupied parts of the Old World from about 200,000 to 28,000 years ago. Debate still rages as to whether they are at least part ancestral to modern humans or represent an evolutionary dead-end — Dr Paul Bahn
informal a man who is primitive in appearance, behaviour, or attitudes
Neanderthaloid /-təloyd/ adj
[named after Neandertal, a valley near Düsseldorf, Germany, where skeletal remains were found]