Right, so Buddha put them all in the category of “humans” due to their manussa gati. I would assume that Neanderthals had the same type of gati so I wonder how they lived and co-existed with Homo Sapiens 40,000+ years ago.
The above website says, “There is evidence that Neanderthals deliberately buried their dead and occasionally even marked their graves with offerings, such as flowers. No other primates, and no earlier human species, had ever practiced this sophisticated and symbolic behavior.
The last sentence is questionable but this is a remarkable discovery in my opinion. Even nowadays we see many diversity among humans but it is surprising for me to know that Neanderthals were the ones to become extinct considering they were bigger and stronger. But I guess the changing conditions of the Earth favored the smaller modern humans of today.