News Finding: "Proving something does not exist," they added, "is pretty much impossible."
Paper Finding: Moreover, humans have shorter interbirth intervals than our closest primate relatives, producing an even greater number of less-capable children (1) .
News Context: Leaving room for the fantastical can help keep our sense of wonder alive. And in this case, thankfully, Gemmel left a little room for truthers like me: "There remains the possibility that there is something present that we did not detect because we sampled in the wrong places at the wrong time," the researchers wrote on their website, "or our metabarcoding method could not detect 'Nessie' because the sequence could not be matched with anything in the sequence databases." "Proving something does not exist," they added, "is pretty much impossible."
Paper Context: Compared with our closest primate relatives, we have a dramatically extended childhood, including an exceptionally long middle childhood and adolescence. Moreover, humans have shorter interbirth intervals than our closest primate relatives, producing an even greater number of less-capable children (1) . There is evidence for other human adaptations that helped cope with this flood of needy young.