The Windover genetic data was based on mitochondrial DNA only — the maternal lineage — and on a subset of the available samples.

More recent and comprehensive analyses might produce a somewhat different picture.

More importantly, the absence of a close genetic match in modern populations does not mean that the Windover people have no modern descendants.

It means that the specific mitochondrial DNA signatures that characterized the Windover population as a distinctive group are not currently identifiable in modern populations.

Population genetics across 8,000 years involves processes — genetic drift, admixture, bottlenecks, migration — that can substantially alter the identifiable genetic signature of any founding group.

Modern Indigenous people in Florida and the Southeast may carry some genetic material from the Windover community even if the distinctive markers of that specific group have been diluted beyond recognition.