Many caves have not been investigated.

Many that have been investigated have not been fully excavated.

The absence of intermediate specimens is an absence of evidence, not evidence of absence.

Whether the practice continued uninterrupted from 25,000 years ago through the gap and into the Toalean period, or whether it was independently reinvented at some point during the gap, is a question that future excavations might help answer.

For now, the two data points establish the endpoints of a tradition that was culturally persistent across a very long span of time.