Excellent article. I scanned through the abstract and reread your take on the information.
This isn't a new perspective. I wrote this Oct 2021.
Paleogenomics has revolutionized our understanding of human evolution. It tells us that we didn’t kill the Neanderthals, we absorbed them. They is us.
When I wrote that I was using paleogenomic studies by the Max Plank Institute. They have been at the forefront of Neanderthal paleogenomic research.
I have been fascinated by the Neanderthal most of my life and have enjoyed watching the evolving science around them. I am a huge fan of the work of Clive Finlayson on the Gibraltar neanderthal site.
I don't disagree with the genetic evidence, I disagree with their interpretation of it. It doesn't align well with either the fossil or archeo remains.
Without seeing the paper I have to wonder how they dealt with the Toba Eruption genetic bottleneck event 75,000 years ago. You don't mention it so I am assuming it's not discussed in the paper.
There is strong paleogenomic, fossil, and archeo evidence now that humans absorbed multiple other hominid "cousins" as we recovered from the glival disaster that reduced the human population to as low as 10,000 individuals in Southern Africa.
By the time the "green corridor" reopened around 65,000 years ago during the last Glacial Maximum. Humans had already regained genetic diversity by "absorbing" 4 or 5 other hominid species through interbreeding.
We think the first wave out of Africa went South. The Australian Aboriginal Culture seems to have reached Australia 55,000ya.
We have some fossils and tool evidence now for several of these cousin species. The others are only "ghosts" in our genome.
When we encountered the Neanderthal for the final time. They were a "shattered" remnant of what had to have been a much larger population. It is easy to forget that the Toba Climate Disaster was global. The Neanderthal went through the same bottleneck we did.
