Originally Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon were not classed as Sapien (Wise).This designation was reserved for "us" - modern man, "Homo-sapien" (Man the Wise). However, subsequent re-thinking by some - perhaps with other than scientific agendas - caused these two early Humanoids to be re-classed as Sapien. Thus they became Homo-sapien neanderthalensis, and Homo-sapien Cro-Magnonensis, that leaves for modern Man, the really screwy "Homo-sapien sapien" (Man the Wise Wise). Though we do understand that the elevation of Cro-magnon and Neanderthal to Sapien status: Does solve a great many problems - none related to science. However, the current move to place Cro-magnon with modern man - "as Homo-sapien sapien", is really taking it too far.
http://www.realhistoryww.com/world_history/ancient/Homo_habilis_erectus_neanderthal.htm
Pardon my old school ways CM....I rely on blam for this stuff and am a willing student
The problem with rating species by intelligence is that scientists keep having to upgrade the intelligence ratings of animals, based on new discoveries.
Even some parrots have been discovered to understand the context of some abstract words, not just direct associations. That is, they understand that the word “toy” means anything they associate as specifically toys, but not non-toy objects, and “yellow toy” means only those toys which are yellow in color. This is pretty advanced as a concept in intelligence.
As far as sign language speaking gorillas, it has been noticed that they teach their own offspring to use sign language as well.
And amazingly complex problems can be solved by squirrels, who can learn to transit a veritable 3-D squirrel obstacle course in pursuit of food, in a consistent manner, once they learn to overcome given obstacles as difficult as in a video game.
Cro-Magnons lived from about 40,000 to 10,000 years ago in the Upper Paleolithic period of the Pleistocene epoch. Cro-Magnon were anatomically modern, only differing from their modern day descendants in Europe by their more robust physiology and slightly larger cranial capacity.[3] They had a diet of meat, grain, wild carrots, beets, onion, turnip and other foods. Altogether they had a very balanced diet.Surviving Cro-Magnon artifacts include huts, cave paintings, carvings and antler-tipped spears. The remains of tools suggest that they knew how to make woven clothing. They had huts, constructed of rocks, clay, bones, branches, and animal hide/fur. These early humans used manganese and iron oxides to paint pictures and may have created the first calendar around 15,000 years ago[4].
The flint tools found in association with the remains at Cro-Magnon have associations with the Aurignacian culture that Lartet had identified a few years before he found the skeletons.
The Cro-Magnons must have come into contact with the Neanderthals, and are often credited with causing the latter's extinction, although morphologically modern humans seem to have coexisted with Neanderthals for some 60,000 years in the Levant[5] and for more than 10,000 years in France[6].
...
A 2003 study on Cro-Magnon and Neanderthal mitochondrial DNA, published by an Italo-Spanish research team led by David Caramelli, concluded that Neanderthal man was far outside the modern human range, while Cro-Magnon people were not just inside but well in the average of modern Europeans. mtDNA retrieved from 2 Cro-Magnon specimens was identified as Haplogroup N. [6] Haplogroup N is found amongst modern day populations of the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia and its descendant haplogroups can be seen amongst modern Europeans, Eurasians, East Asians and Native American populations. [Source]