I thought we were closer to Bonobo’s than chimps.
Bonobo chimps and Pan chimps live on the opposite side of a river. It is exactly what one would expect if there were once only one population of chimps, and then the river changed course and ran through the middle of their population. Chimps don't swim or otherwise cross rivers - so just as languages diverge between two groups kept apart - genetic differences accumulated and the two populations diverged in DNA and habits (most notably with bonobo chimps being sex maniacs!).
Bonobo chimps and Pan chimps live on the opposite side of a river. It is exactly what one would expect if there were once only one population of chimps, and then the river changed course and ran through the middle of their population. Chimps don't swim or otherwise cross rivers - so just as languages diverge between two groups kept apart - genetic differences accumulated and the two populations diverged in DNA and habits (most notably with bonobo chimps being sex maniacs!).
Vendramini’s claim is totally simple and logical. Neanderthals kept their basic primate appearance (what you’d expect from their DNA being halfway between ours and that of chimpanzees); became total carnivores in the European ice age; developed the long dense fur coats which all ice age animals had and without which nothing would have lasted forty seconds in the European ice age; developed big eyes for nocturnal predation activity, explaining the eye sockets being twice the size of ours; lost the big canines of apes after they developed knives and cutting tools.