But they do accumulate.

The field of ancient hominin genomics was barely possible twenty years ago.

It is now producing findings of a specificity and a quality — of which Denny’s genome is the most striking example — that would have seemed like science fiction to the paleoanthropologists of the previous generation.

Twenty years from now, the field will have tools and data that we cannot fully imagine today.

The picture of the ancient human world will be clearer.