Penny Spikins received funding from The John Templeton Foundation, grant 59475, for the production of Hidden Depths: the origins of human connection (White Rose University Press). Wax model of male Neanderthal head with long hair, headband and beard Neanderthal adult male, based on 40,000 year-old remains found at Spy in Belgium. IR Stone/Shutterstock Scientific study of human evolution historically reassured us of a comforting order to things. It has painted humans as as cleverer, more intellectual and caring than our ancestral predecessors.