No Evidence of Neandertal mtDNA Contribution to Early Modern Humans asserts this PLOS article. Of course, as the article notes, it simply follows in the wake of other pieces that suggest a lack of continuity between Neandertals and modern humans. I would be willing to bet money that 20 years from now the studies would point in the same direction, and if Milford Wolpoff is still around, I would also be willing to bet he would claim these results were all due to the vicissitudes of genetic drift. The problem as I see it is that the molecular evidence does not stand alone, paleoanthropologists like Chris Stringer have long argued for a replacement model based on the bones, while issues of philosophical parsimony seem to favor the "Out of Africa" model.

As I've followed this "controversy" over the past 15 years, one thing I've noticed is the tendency for both sides to use emotionally charged rhetoric against the other, and try to paint themselves as on the side of "progress." That argues that more than issues of science are at stake-ego has a hold of the mind, and only death shall set them free. Remember, the brilliance of the late Sir Fred Hoyle could not shake him from his belief in "Steady State" until the last.