These findings confirm the presence of an unidentified species of Homo at the CM site during the last interglacial period (MIS 5e; early late Pleistocene), indicating that humans with manual dexterity and the experiential knowledge to use hammerstones and anvils processed mastodon limb bones for marrow extraction and/or raw material for tool production. 

i wanted to make sure that the publication wasn't presenting this the way that the news reports are.

the bering hypothesis is as good as anything in science, and has extremely strong support in dna evidence. indigenous dna is not very diverse, indicating a small founder population very recently. these results do not challenge this hypothesis, which is virtually unassailable.

what they're saying is that there may have been an unrelated species of hominid - not humans, exactly, but close relatives to humans - in north america, after all.

i have no idea how such a hominid would have ended up in north america, or if it would have been more likely to have been related to neanderthalensis (and hence come from the west) or erectus (and hence come from the east). i do not believe that pre-humans are currently believed to have been capable of purposeful seafaring at such extents, but this is all reconstructive. what i might suggest is that if pre-humans could sail from sunda to san diego, you'd might as well go ahead and call them humans.

but, do not be tricked into thinking that these hominids were related to existing indigenous populations. the research suggests no such thing.

https://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v544/n7651/full/nature22065.html