[varmintman]

Run or kill it...

I've got three very minor issues with Vendramini's reconstructions:

• I don't believe the slit eye pupils would have been necessary i.e. I don't believe the creature ever say daylight as we know it.
• I suspect the fur would have been reddish and not dark grey, as the DNA studies suggest.
• I don't think they'd have been walking around all day with fight faces on as Vendramini's artist shows most of the cases.

The image I like best is the one I call Fred, who seems to be a more calm and thoughtful individual, possibly a business-executive Neanderthal, that is, a Neanderthal of wealth and taste:

[Lazamataz]

My thesis is that the Neanderthals died out because their legs were too short.

Since their legs were too short to reach the ground, they never could get traction and run. So there they were, suspended in the air, desperately trying to reach the ground, and failing. Picking them off would be easy.