Neanderthals are not totally extinct - The National

Neanderthals are not totally extinct - The National: "When you are a public relations disaster like Neanderthal man, there are certain deep seated prejudices that even the slickest spin doctor might struggle to overcome.

Being extinct for about 30,000 years does not help. Nor does the reality that your name is a byword for brutish, if not downright thuggish, behaviour that typically manifests itself in a cartoon in which you are shown as a knuckle-dragging cave man wearing little more than a woolly mammoth skin, carrying a massive club and dragging Mrs Neanderthal around by her hair.

Last week, though, has brought news that we may need to rethink our attitudes (and prejudices) about our long vanished cousins.

Researchers at George Washington University and The Smithsonian Institute have concluded that rather than existing on a diet of raw mastodon, perhaps lightly sautéed over a cave fire, the Neanderthal actually enjoyed a varied and health- conscious diet in which vegetables played a regular part."