This doesn’t fit into the rest of the discussion above, but the Malazan series absolutely blew me away with a subplot (!!) about ancient hominids making epic sacrifices to allow modern humans to exist.

This is (a) set in a fantasy world (b) has zero bearing in any real archeological or anthropological evidence and (c) is meant to be entertaining fiction more than an investigation into how early hominids might have lived. And yes, there are lots of magic and dragons involved.

However, the creators of this world were field archaeologists and anthropologists and their instincts for telling stories spanning evolutionary time scales is absolutely unrivaled.