India, Sept. 29 -- In August 1856, laborers clearing a small cave during limestone quarrying in Germany's Neander Valley came across a set of unusual bones. The workers were not conducting an archaeological excavation and initially believed the remains belonged to a cave bear. Some bones were even discarded before anyone recognized their significance. Johann Carl Fuhlrott, a local teacher and naturalist, later examined the surviving remains and recognized them as human.

The specimen became known as Neanderthal 1. The discovery was striking because the bones were clearly human but had anatomical features that did not fit easily into the scientific understanding of the period. The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History records the ...