A caveman or troglodyte is a stock character

Stock character

A Stock character is a fictional character based on a common literary or social stereotype. Stock characters rely heavily on cultural types or names for their personality, manner of speech, and other characteristics. In their most general form, stock characters are related to literary archetypes,...

 based upon widespread concepts of the way in which early prehistoric human

Human

Humans are the only living species in the Homo genus...

s may have looked and behaved. The term caveman, sometimes used colloquially to refer to Neanderthal

Neanderthal

The Neanderthal is an extinct member of the Homo genus known from Pleistocene specimens found in Europe and parts of western and central Asia...

 people, originates out of assumptions about the association between early humans and caves, most clearly demonstrated in cave painting

Cave painting

Cave paintings are paintings on cave walls and ceilings, and the term is used especially for those dating to prehistoric times. The earliest European cave paintings date to the Aurignacian, some 32,000 years ago. The purpose of the paleolithic cave paintings is not known...

 or bench models.

Cavemen are not infrequently shown living with dinosaur

Dinosaur

Dinosaurs are a diverse group of animals of the clade and superorder Dinosauria. They were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic period until the end of the Cretaceous , when the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event led to the extinction of...

s in popular culture, despite the fact dinosaurs became extinct at the end of the Cretaceous period, some 65 million years before the emergence of the human species.