> Rather the descendants of those 1,280 individuals out-breed and out-warred all other hominid / human groups. Or maybe they out-prosocialed, cooperated for mu

> Rather the descendants of those 1,280 individuals out-breed and out-warred all other hominid / human groups. Or maybe they out-prosocialed, cooperated for much higher productivity, reproduction (not to mention loyalty), and thrived while the other hominid groups killed and stole from each other. Edit: Also, there's always the possibility the authors already addressed your question - the more obvious the possibility, the more likely (I don't know in this case). The paper: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abq7487 https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abq7487