High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Clan of the Cave Bear is an historical novel by Jean M. Auel about prehistoric times set before the extinction of the Neanderthal race after 600,000 years as a species, and at least 10-15,000 years after Homo sapiens remains are documented and dated in Europe as a viable second human species. It is the first book in the Earth`s Children book series which speculates on the possibilities of interactions between Neanderthal and modern Cro-Magnon humans.