Neanderthals are our cousins. Meaning it's essentially a species in the same genus tree (very closely related to us). Characteristics which are "not rare" are f

Neanderthals are our cousins. Meaning it's essentially a species in the same genus tree (very closely related to us). Characteristics which are "not rare" are found across species in various branches in the tree - think of vision or smell, etc. I do agree however that we might be the first - hell there was a first species that developed vision so why not think we might be the first who have developed tech. intelligence.