Neandertal

Distinct people classified alternately as a subspecies of Homo sapiens or a separate species descended from Homo erectus.
Neandertals found a niche in the cold climate of Europe by hunting mammoths and other big animals and working the hides of animals into clothing.
The Neandertal brain was smaller in size of that modern humans but may not have been as well developed for speech and the social skills dependent on speech.They died out or were assimilated into the dominant population of Homo sapiens some 32,000 years ago.

Homo Sapiens

The Homo Sapiens (wise man) descended from the Homo erectus and possessed even a larger brain. That evolutionary advance occurred about 100,000 years ago in Africa by which the Homo sapiens were much the same as the humans living today.

The Homo Erectus (erect man) emerged as a larger-brained species
Around 1.8 MYA, the Homo Erectus began spreading out from Africa across the Middle East, Asia and ultimately Europe.
The mobility of these humans combined with their capacity to adapt to new surroundings made them great explorers and great travelers. These early humans could live almost anywhere because they had learned to build huts and were skilled hunters, equipped with better tools and a larger physique than their hominid ancestors. They discovered how to make use of naturally occurring fires for cooking and warmth, which helped them adapt to colder climates.

Human evolution entered a major new phase with the emergence nearly 2.5 million years ago of the first species considered sufficiently advanced to bear the name man: Homo habilis (handy man).
Equipped with a brain roughly half as large of that modern humans, these handy primates were the first to craft tools.
At one site in Tanzania, a group of Homo habilis piled up stones as a shelter against the wind- a sign that humans were learning to shape their environment in ways that would allow them to move freely