When I started learning about the Ice Age, the oldest known cave art dated to about 35,000 years ago—now it's closer to 41,000 years. And while they seemed like a fairly intelligent species, Neanderthals weren't thought to have been capable of creating art (the first confirmed Neanderthal cave art—an engraved crosshatch—was announced in 2014). Most researchers didn't think our ancestors interbred with Neanderthals (but a number of them actually did around 60,000 years ago), and we definitely didn't know that there was a third separate humanlike species called the Denisovans living in Ice Age Europe—and that some of us carry their genes, too. The remarkable fact is that all of us living today are the end product of an incredible story of success against all odds: Each of us carries DNA that stretches back in an unbroken line to the beginnings of humanity and beyond.
Paleoanthropologists have to be fairly flexible and open-minded about our theories, as we just never know when a new discovery or innovative research project could reveal previously unknown possibilities. I encountered this ground-shifting experience firsthand while working on the initial stage of my database of Ice Age symbols. At that point my goal was to…
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