Neandertals Had Long Childhoods, Tooth Study Suggests

Neandertals Had Long Childhoods, Tooth Study Suggests: "Neandertals Had Long Childhoods, Tooth Study Suggests
James Owen
for National Geographic News
September 20, 2005

Our prolonged childhoods make us Homo sapiens unique among primates. Scientists have a theory to explain this lengthy maturation process: Our brains need many years of learning and physical growth before we're equipped for the complexities of human living.

Now a new study says we weren't the only humans who took their time growing up. Analysis of Neandertal teeth suggests that the extinct species had similarly lengthy childhoods"