At https://dailygalaxy.com/2025/10/50000-year-old-fossil-discovery-reveals-neanderthals-had-a-much-richer-diet-than-science-ever-believed/ … this follows on from previous research that seemed to point to a high plant intake in their diet. The Neanderthal cave man image is becoming more and more diluted as it was all about hunting mammoths and chomping on great big lumps of meat. New discoveries from ancient caves show Neanderthals had a varied diet. They ate plants and possibly used some of them medicinally. They also liked to dine on marine food, such as shell fish and other life forms, going by what is sometimes found in cave sediments. Nowadays, there are some new techniques in which to extract information on their habits. Analysis of dental plaque for example. They also had a penchant for mushrooms, cracked open crabs and other shells, as well as eating all kinds of plants, nuts and seeds. Much like the modern human diet. They will have to think again about their big noses, known as conks, and their heavy brow ridges. Why did they have them?
At https://phys.org/news/2025-10-ancient-ochre-crayons-crimea-reveal.html … ochre is an iron rich mineral pigment that was used by many acient peoples to colour, decorate, and was used to preserve animal hides. Neanderthals, it seems, used ochre to colour and mark surfaces. Ochre crayons are split from a large core of ochre – much like stone flakes are created from flint and chert cores, and obsidian too. They probably used ochre to decorate their bodies, clothing, surfaces around their living quarters, as well as symbolically used in burials. Ochre from Neanderthal sites in the Crimea and the Ukraine were analysed via scanning electron microscopes and portable x-ray scanners. They discovered that ochre crayons were repeatedly sharpened and reshaped for re-use.
At https://phys.org/news/2025-10-neanderthals-capable-art.html … for a long time it was believed art work was beyond the comprehension of Neanderthals. As they were sub human brutes and art is often associated with the middle and upper classes, it was concieved as a modern human development – after Neanderthals became extinct. It now seems Neanderthals were fully cognitive and there is no reason they could not have made art work – in caves or on rock surfaces, for instance.