Scientists have shared a bombshell new claim about how the Neanderthals were really wiped out.
Neanderthals, our prehistoric cousins, were just as intelligent as modern humans - and did not become extinct due to cognitive shortcomings, researchers say.
Experts had long claimed that variations in skull structure suggested our ancient relatives were intellectually inferior.
Although Neanderthals had bigger skulls, researchers believed they had worse memories, diminished thinking abilities, and restricted language skills.
These supposed limitations were often cited as explanations for their disappearance.
But fresh research now disputes this.
Scientists examined brain structures across two distinct groups and uncovered far greater complexity than anyone had anticipated.
Their results indicate Neanderthals may even have been just as clever as modern humans.
Experts had long maintained that variations in skull structure suggested our ancient relatives were intellectually inferior
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Researchers from the University of Indiana said: "The question of why Neanderthals no longer exist has long been of interest.
"Speculation on Neanderthal cognition based on archaeological and paleoneurological research has frequently concluded they were likely cognitively challenged.
"Putting estimated Neanderthal differences into the context of modern human variation does not support this view."
Scientists reached the remarkable finding by studying the brains of two present-day human groups.
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Their results indicate the intellectual divide between Neanderthals and contemporary humans was insignificant
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MRI scans from 200 individuals with European ancestry in America and 200 ethnic Han Chinese participants yielded unexpected results.
Size differences in parts of the brain were larger between these populations than between humans and Neanderthals.
The researchers wrote: "It seems likely that any average cognitive differences that existed would have been very subtle, if detectable at all.
"While small differences in cognition can theoretically have large evolutionary effects over the very long term, it is critical to put the size of any such effects into proper comparative perspective."
Neanderthals inhabited Earth from roughly 350,000 to 40,000 years ago
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Scientists also said the current evidence demonstrates only a tenuous and unverified connection between brain dimensions and intelligence in modern humans.
Neanderthals lived on Earth from roughly 350,000 to 40,000 years ago, and made their homes in what is now Portugal across to the Altai Mountains in Central Asia.
Experts now propose their extinction most probably resulted from "genetic swamping".
This phenomenon occurs when Neanderthal genes were progressively diluted through mating with modern humans.
The notion of Neanderthal inferiority originated in 1857 when German researcher Hermann Schaaffhausen examined a fossil he described as possessing an "extraordinary form."
Unearthed the previous year, these remains became recognised as the first identified Neanderthal specimen.
Mr Schaaffhausen determined the skull represented a "low stage of development".
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