[Tax-chick]

"Yahoo news" isn't exactly a credible publication :-). I expect the full study report (not yet available online) goes into more detail.

And 299 "lateral descendents" is a very small number, actually.

If they had a genetic defect of the nervous system, maybe that cut down the number of surviving offspring for the whole extended clan.

[presidio9]

"Yahoo news" isn't exactly a credible publication

This is from Live Science, not Yahoo News. I have never seen anything the posted disputed. They even tend to steer clear of "Global Warming" stories

[twigs]

If they had a genetic defect of the nervous system, maybe that cut down the number of surviving offspring for the whole extended clan.

True, it might, but that's still a very small number. I have one set of ancestors who had more than that many descendents by the time they died.