Crazy Social Artistic Black Widows

Elizabeth Kolbert uses recent genetic studies of the Neanderthals as the frame for discussing what differentiates humans from our nearest relatives (Neanderthals and apes). The article is behind the New Yorker paywall. Here's my quick summary of her main points about our species' distinctive features.

1. To paraphrase the tagline of the movie Black Widow, "we mate, then we kill." In the case of both the Neanderthals and Denisovans our ancestors definitely had sex. And it worked out well for us, as the BBC reports it improved our immune systems. It's not clear we actually killed them after having sex, but they disappeared not long after we arrived in the regions they had previously occupied. And we have a record of causing extinctions of other species that have the misfortune to try to share the same space with us.
2. We painted our cave walls. Apparently the others did not.
3. We crossed oceans. Partly because we were smart enough to develop the technology to do so. And partly because we were crazy enough to paddle off into the open sea.
4. We're not especially impressive problem solvers. An adult Orangutan can solve problems that flummox human toddlers. But the human kids show greater ability to engage in social learning. Neanderthals may have been somewhat autistic.