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It’s not necessarily obvious that “normal” humans would have recognized them as a different species. Might have just seen them as a different tribe/race with different facial/etc. features

Well, I think that that's obvious , no? It's not like they had any idea about evolution and speciation yet.

That's a very long time for anything to survive. Like, notably, their bones.

But we do have evidence of some traditions from ~12kya, so it's possible some shadows of the idea are left. It can be thought that the folklore tradition of crypto-peoples (the elves, dwarves, green men, etc) may contain some echo of other hominids, though any specific connection or detail is unlikely.

If there are then Crecganford [1] will have probably covered it and followed the evolution of the story across the world - a real treasure trove of a channel (I advise using closed-captions as he often hurries through words).

[1] https://www.youtube.com/@Crecganford