Marc Verhaegen wrote:
> https://www.researchgate.net/publication/376650459_Have_We_Been_Barking_up_the_Wrong_Ancestral_Tree_Australopithecines_Are_Probably_Not_Our_Ancestors/stats

I have to agree: Lucy is no ancestor!

Of course, the way I see things is pretty consistent. In other words, in
the exact same way that groups pushed inland and adapted everwhere
across Asia and into Oceania, groups pushed inland into Africa, adapted
and radiated out...

What am I saying? I'm saying that Lucy and her ilk are descended from
coastal populations. And WHEN they pushed inland from the coast -- at
what point in our evolutionary journey -- and HOW often they interbred
with more recent arrivals was what decided how close they were to us.

They would have remained co fertile for quite some time; tens perhaps
hundreds of thousands of years.

The further you got from the point of entry, the further you got from the
horn of Africa the less genetic influx from the coastal (Aquatic Ape)
population.

I tend to argue for a more recent origins for Chimps. I imagine that the
retrovirus, as it aligns to well with other evidence, was the final point
of divergence for Pan and Homo. That, the African population of our
parent species was more or less wiped out -- likely absorbed by the
Pan side around 3.7 million years ago. That, if there were any remaining
on our side of the divide, they were so few in numbers that they were
genetically swamped by Eurasian groups.

The point is, Lucy wasn't an ancestor but she shared ancestors...

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