隨著現代人類擴張並走出非洲，爆發了一場創新。在擴張之前，在非洲就有這類改變的跡象，然而在解剖學意義上的現代人類遭遇並取代尼安德特人之後，這一跡象大約兩萬年後在歐洲大大強化。從考古學記錄上看，由創新過渡到全面的行為現代性不規則地發生在許多地方，之後最終在亞歐大陸的其他地區完成。我們提出的觀點是，即便從尼安德特人（或其他遠古人類）身上流向解剖學意義上的現代人類的基因流很有限，這也有助於現代人類獲取大部分他們所需要的優勢等位基因。我們相信這短時間內大量湧入的適應性基因組對「人類革命」所需的能力的貢獻良多，我們也同樣相信來自遠古人類群體的基因滲入會被證實在現代人類起源的故事中有中心的地位。
所以截至大約4萬年前，人類在身體結構上和行為上都變得現代（這不是說他們就完全像今天的人們一樣了）。他們有著比他們的祖先遠為強大的創新力量，很可能得益於從他們的尼安德特表親身上偷得的基因。文化改變的速度增長了幾十倍，而當冰川後退之後新的機會湧現，改變的速度就更快了。
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[3]Richard Klein,The Human Career(Chicago:University of Chicago Press,1999),524.
[4]Richard Klein,The Dawn of Human Culture(New York:Wiley,2002),270.
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[12]關於混合尼安德特人基因被認為不顯著這一點，可見（舉例）：Chris Stringer and Peter Andrews,The Complete World of Human Evolution(London:Thames and Hudson,2005)。或可見：Klein,The Dawn of Human Culture.
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[14]可以想到的就有芝加哥大學的瑪莎·漢博林和安娜·迪·裡恩佐在少數意大利人身上發現的達菲（Duffy）血型基因附近一個區的極端特殊形式，與我們在所有其他人類身上看到的都很不一樣。M.T.Hamblin and A.Di Rienzo,「Detectionof the Signature of Natural Selection in Humans:Evidence from the Duffy Blood Group Locus,」American Journal of Human Genetics 66,no.5(2000):1669–1679.
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