You’re probably right…
You are quite right, that AMHS did not “poof” into existence, so what we have at Omo and Bouri are just representatives of an evolution that must have begun to occur earlier. One thing that I did not consider initially is that, while we have H. ergaster and (maybe) H. erectus in south and East Africa, it is north Africa where the first AMHS appears. Omo and Bouri are both in the Afar Triangle, in Ethiopia. What this means is not entirely clear but it may be that one of the reasons that H. naledi was able to continue undisturbed for so long is that AMHS did not make their way down that far. Just a thought.
I honestly haven’t had time to even read the article, let alone the sources, but I saw this story in an email on my lunch break. I figured a number of you would be interested.
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