Each methodological advance added a layer of evidence that reduced the ambiguity and increased the confidence with which the hunting interpretation could be stated.

This is not a linear or smooth process.

It took forty-plus years, the work of multiple research groups, the development of technologies that did not exist when the rib was excavated, and the sustained advocacy of a researcher who knew what he had found but could not fully prove it.

The scientific process worked, but it worked slowly and with significant friction.

The lesson is not that science is perfect or that its conclusions are always quickly arrived at.