The final sentence suggests there really were Denisovans running around in southeast Asia, way back when. But did they get as far as New Guinea / Australia? It

The final sentence suggests there really were Denisovans running around in southeast Asia, way back when. But did they get as far as New Guinea / Australia? It's a bit hard to imagine a mechanism by which presence of Neanderthals and Denisovans could have so effectively stalled development of the trappings of civilization. But that doesn't mean it didn't happen. We like to think of ourselves as totally badass, but they could have been moreso. Maybe it was unsafe to settle down and build a village where they might swoop in and burn you out. And, our own ancestors could have been doing the same to them. It happened that "we" won. Another problem is that Neanderthals and Denisovans are not known to have been in Africa. But there could have been any number of other, unknown badass H. species in Africa, besides. Or, maybe, why develop civilization "when there are so many mongongo nuts in the world"? [0] [0] https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/the-worst-mistake-in-the-history-of-the-human-race https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/the-worst-mist...