My species could beat up your species

I heard a report on NPR this morning that spoke to the creativity and intelligence of our near-relatives, the Neanderthal. Apparently, they were using pigments on their skin for no other discernible reason than for decoration for beauty or perhaps to show status.

In discussing this, one anthropologist made the claim that Neanderthal undoubtedly learned how to do this by seeing Homo sapiens do it, or by finding caches of these pigments left behind by them.

The sites where these pigments are found predate modern humans in Europe by nearly 10,000 years. Interesting. That would seem to indicate that the Neanderthal developed this technology on their own.

While I find the archaeology fascinating, I am amazed that we still have this need to one-up other species, including extinct humanoids. “Cavemen” couldn’t possibly have come up with make-up without our help. We are superior to other animals because we “fill-in-the-blank” and they don’t. It is particularly bizarre to hear this kind of sentiment from scientists who should know better than most how much we don’t know.

Pop psychology, I am sure, but doesn't it seem like we suffer from some kind of species' inferiority complex?