These days I take such statements with a heavy dose of salt.
In my youth the scientist were sure that Chimpanzees were vegetarian. Later observations of chimps in the wild revealed that they not only ate meat but occasionally practiced cannibalism and tribal wars.
I have come to believe that scientist unknowingly project their idealism on to the subjects of their studies.
Of course with extinct subjects it is much harder to be proven wrong.
“I have come to believe that scientist unknowingly project their idealism on to the subjects of their studies. “
In Arizona there’s a couple of indian dwellings built on top of high bluffs, the access to which was a foot path no wider than your shoe. They had to carry every stick of firewood and cup of water up that treacherous path. The top could have been defended by an elderly lady with a stick. At the entrance to the area the Park Service had put up a bronze plaque reading something like, -The natives obviously built on these high plateaus for the spectacular views they afforded.- We howled with laughter.
Depends what tools are used to support the theory. Isotope analysis is a pretty good one.
That's the advantage of the scientific method -- instead of relying on fixed ideas, new knowledge becomes available. People who don't like information to change see that as some kind of weakness, and are dead wrong.