Ancient human fossils find modern virtual home

First discovered 150 years ago, Neanderthals have been studied more
widely than any other form of human. Thanks to a new interactive inventory and online catalogue developed in Europe, scientists worldwide can now probe the secrets of this primitive relative from the comfort of their computer.

Neanderthal humans (Homo neanderthalensis) was once common throughout Europe,
but died out some 30,000 years ago. Since the discovery of Neanderthal remains in Düsseldorf, Germany in 1856, archaeologists have unearthed its fossils at dozens of different excavation sites, including those in Croatia, Belgium, France and Germany.

“These extensive finds explain why most of the scientific analysis of human
evolution has been done on Neanderthals,” says Heinz Cordes, coordinator of the IST project TNT, which stands for The
Neanderthal Tools.