“Singles bars of Pleistocene Eurasia”

Most researchers in the past also assumed that interactions between two different ancient human groups had happened only rarely. So, how do these researchers’ latest developments change our view of ancient humans and their society? In an interview with National Geographic, geneticist David Reich explained that their new discovery “qualitatively transforms” our understanding of the world, which he described as a “really exciting” moment.

Of course, there could also be other explanations why a first-generation hybrid has appeared in such a small sample size. To biologist Richard E. Green’s credit, he expounded that caves like the one located in the Altai Mountains could have been a popular meeting point for ancient humans, leading sampling bias into the equation. As another specialist put it in his interview with National Geographic, these caves were the “singles bars of Pleistocene Eurasia” in the past.