They excelled at hunting animals and making complex stone tools, and their bones reveal that they were extremely muscular and strong, but led hard lives, suffering frequent injuries. There is no doubt that Neanderthals were an intelligent species, successfully adapted to their environment for over 200 millenia.

Overall, scientists suspect that the Neanderthals behaved in an isolated, insular way, though they also showed adaptability and intelligence in several areas. Targeting an array of prey animals according to the season, they made and manipulated an assortment of tools and probably produced simple speech.

Neanderthal toolmaking changed little over hundreds of thousands of years. The lack of innovation may imply a reduced capacity for thinking by analogy and less working memory. Researchers have speculated that Neanderthal behaviour would probably seem neophobic, dogmatic and xenophobic to modern humans. and of a degree of rationality.