“…Hypothetical larger dispersal and long‐distance dispersal would widen a hybrid zone and disturb the typically clinal character‐state transitions (Barton & Hewitt, ; Ibrahim, Nichols, & Hewitt, ). An erratic, large‐scale pattern appears to describe the spatial‐genetic interactions of the lineages of anatomically modern humans and for example, Neanderthals, with frequent interbreeding when hominin species' ranges overlapped (Petr, Pääbo, Kelso, & Vernot, ; Slon et al, ; Vernot & Akey, ). The inferred species transition that was labelled as “leaky replacement” (Pääbo, ; see also Gibbons, ), parallels that of a moving hybrid zone leaving a genetic footprint.…”