I find the theory of Neanderthal predation (NP theory) of homo sapiens, set forth by Danny Vendramini[1], to be persuasive. It explains the genetic bottleneck in an elegant and intuitive fashion, along with a host of other related anthropological questions. In fact, it kind of opened my eyes to how much of human behavior and morphology deserves an explanation and could possibly be explained by a central selection pressure.

One epiphany that played a role in confirming my fondness for the theory surrounds the so-called Neanderthal Late Flowering. I'd never heard of this period before reading Vendramini's book, but while reading, based on NP theory, I wondered to myself why such a thing had not happened, as it would seemed to have been predicted by the theory. Theories need to have predictive value to test them of course. As it turned out, the last few chapters discussed a Late Flowering, and I was a bit blown away.

Also, within a few months of reading the book, a genetic analysis study came out which showed we have a small percentage of Neanderthal DNA (but, importantly, no female DNA) another crucial prediction of NP theory.

Anyway, it was a fun read by a talented amateur anthropologist. I recommend it.

[1] http://www.themandus.org/