our family tree is more crowded than scholars like Busk or Darwin ever imagined: there are over 20 identified hominin species from just the last 3.5 million years. Its roots go deeper too. Transforming small scuttling mammals into hominins and eventually Neanderthals took an extraordinarily long time. Immense forests 25 Ma bristled with monkeys as the split leading to the apes was already underway.
