Just because Homo sapiens hadn’t yet developed the SPF rating system 41,000 years ago didn’t mean that they were unaware that solar radiation could prove hazardous.
H. sapiens applied some form of sunscreen, shielded themselves from UV rays with clothes, and avoided the ravages of the sun by hiding in caves, according to an article in the journal Science Advances. In fact, those strategies may have helped their populations expand throughout Europe and Asia during a time when Neanderthals, who didn’t appear to make these adaptations, were declining.
"What some of the differences are between these species, between Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans, that might account for that disappearance has been a major anthropological question for decades," Raven Garvey, a University of Michigan anthropologist and an author of the study, said in a press release.
