Question

Human ancestors who left cave paintings were
(a) Neanderthal man
(b)Cro-magnon man
(c)Java ape man
(d) Peking man

Answer 1

Hint: They were an early form of modern human (Homo sapiens) inhabiting Europe in the late Paleolithic Period, characterized by a broad face and tall stature. These pieces of information we received from the skeletal remains first found in the Cro-Magnoncave in southern France.

Complete answer:
The Cro-magnon men are a very close relative of modern man or in other words, they are the earliest known modern man, Homo sapiens sapiens. They lived from about 45,000 to 10,000 years ago in Europe and other parts of the world during the upper paleolithic period of the Pleistocene epoch. Cro-magnons are associated with the Aurignacian culture that occurred between 38,000 and 22,000 years ago. They were swift-footed, cave-dwelling forms, and are said to be expert hunters that hunted mainly with spears, as the bow and arrows were developed later. Almost 12,000 years ago, they had learned to make paints out of clays, animal fats, and metal oxides. They were familiar with art and could sketch pictures of their contemporary animals. The art of Cro-magnon extended to figures of venus, ritual statuettes of bone, and they also made outline cave wall drawings of woolly rhinos, mammoths, cave lions, and cave bears. Cro-magnon made tools from blades of flintstone, which they were used for preparing animal skins. They also made ornaments from ivory, pierced shells, teeth, and bone pendants and decorated their body
They were not known to agriculture and domestication of animals but exhibited some cultural advance and had some religious burial ceremonies. These we came to know from the cave paintings. A number of depictions of animals are found in Cro-magnon cave paintings throughout at sites such as Lascaux, Eyzies-de-Tayac, and Altamira in France and Spain, and some of them are surpassingly very beautiful. We came to know from cave paintings that these paintings had some magic or ritual importance to the people.
So, the correct answer is,'Cro-magnon man'.

Note: -Cro-magnon men’s fossils indicate that their bodies were usually heavy, powerful, and solid with strong muscles that had straight foreheads, like modern humans.
-The Cro-magnon fossil was among the first fossils to be recognized as belonging to our own species—Homo sapiens; it was discovered in 1868.
-The Decorated tools and weapons made by the Cro-magnon people show that they were highly appreciated art for aesthetic purposes and also for religious reasons.