Amazing that we can assess mDNA from these specimens.
Their conclusion is not surprising. Climate change finished off many species that humans had started in decline, IMO.
How can they possibly come to any conclusion? How about they just state what they find and don’t try to have “THE ANSWER”.
The human population 50K ya had begun to recover from the great Toba Megavolcano around 74K years ago. I imagine the cave bear population was also reduced by Toba, but humans resurged more so than the cave bears not being limited to cave habitat.