But what we see instead is a gradual emergence of behavioral innovations in and outside Africa between 300,000 and 20,000 years ago. Moreover, anatomically modern populations shared a number of these innovations with Neanderthals, which many anthropologists and geneticists consider a different species, or a human type inherently incapable of reaching our cognitive level.
具体而言，我们应该在非洲的遗址上发现这些距今10-20万年之间的考古证据。但我们真正发现的却是在非洲及其以外的地点逐步出现的，距今20-30万年的行为创新。另外，解剖学上的现代人与穴居人有一些共同的行为创新。而许多人类学家和遗传学家都认为穴居人是一个不同的种群，或是一种在先天就达不到我们的认知能力的人类。