Why are Neanderthals generally depicted as having dark skin and black hair?

Question

I mean, they lived in Europe. Wouldn't a blonde Neanderthal make more sense? They couldn't have got enough vitamin D if they were dark.

Answer 1

Wasn't there some theory that ginger hair may possibly be a gene that Neanderthals had.

But also if  they did have dark skin at that time there wouldn't have been enough vitimin D in their diets, so illnesses like rickets would have been rife. Prehaps this contributed to their path to extinction.

Answer 2

It is a good point.  I think it points out a prejudice that most PC anthropologists wouldn't like to admit.

Answer 3

Because the French were the first to describe the inferior brutes.

Answer 4

I agree, Neanderthals were specifically evolved for a colder climate. they would tend to be fair haired and light skinned like modern Irish,Nordic or Scottish people.

Answer 5

I guess we shall never know!

Answer 6

I don't think that they have any proof at all what color skin, hair, or how much hair.

Answer 7

The mosr recent research I've read, is that the Neanderthal DNA, when mixed with Cro-Magnon, likely accounted for the blue-eye gene, and the Blonde/Red -Haired gene commonly found in today's Northern Europeans, before they disappeared entirely, appx. 25,000 years ago...