300,000 years ago, nine human species walked the Earth. Now there’s just one human species (Sapien). The Neanderthals, Homo Neanderthalensis, were stocky hunters adapted to Europe’s cold steppes. The related Denisovans inhabited Asia, while the more primitive Homo erectus lived in Indonesia, and Homo rhodesiensis  in central Africa. Several short, small-brained species survived alongside them:  Homo Naledi in South Africa, Homo luzonensis  in the Philippines, Homo floresiensis (“hobbits”) in Indonesia, and the mysterious  Red Deer Cave People in China. Given how quickly we’re discovering new species, more are likely waiting to be found. Now, they’re gone. The disappearance of these other species resembles a mass extinction. But there’s no obvious environmental catastrophe – volcanic eruptions, climate change, asteroid impact – driving it. Instead, the extinctions’ timing suggests they were caused by the spread of a new species, evolving 260,000-350,000 years ago in Southern Africa: Homo sapiens.