This is a small caveat for the primary findings — the broad direction of the prediction (dark skin rather than light skin) is robust even if the specific shade cannot be pinpointed — but it is worth noting that ancient DNA research is always working with incomplete information and probabilistic inferences rather than direct observation.

Beyond the pigmentation question, DNA cannot tell us most of what we would want to know about a person’s life.

It does not tell us what language Cheddar Man spoke, what his social relationships were, what stories his community told, what ceremonies they performed, what he personally experienced in his twenty-odd years of life.

The genome is a biological blueprint, not a biography.

The facial reconstruction based on the DNA findings is a scientific inference, not a photograph.