He is one of the key pieces of evidence for the argument that Neanderthals cared for their injured.

Shanidar Z, a female who lived long enough to show the signs of age, expands that picture.

She was not an anomaly.

She was part of a community that used this cave over an extended period, that returned to it repeatedly, that buried their dead there in ways that at minimum involved intentional placement and very possibly involved much more.

Reading the Teeth