Crucial to Rushton’s hypothesis was the idea that evolution is progressive and that some populations are more advanced than others. Rushton noted that newer forms of life tend to be bigger brained and more complex than their archaic ancestors.

Source: http://www.cmkosemen.com/dinosauroids.html

Applying this logic to humans, Rushton became an early supporter of the Out of Africa model of human origins. This was ironic because the theory is usually associated with anti-racists who argue such a recent sub-Saharan origin for our species makes us all African under the skin. Rushton however used it to argue that Negroids branched off the evolutionary tree prematurely (200 kya) and Mongloids being the most recently emerged race (40 kya) are new and improved.

Although Rushton cited genetic studies from the 1980s, 40 years later his evolutionary sequence holds up though the exact splitting dates might be disputed.

Source: https://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2012/issue132a/

There is however a problem with Rushton’s model. If instead of looking at the three main races in the human species, we look at the three main species in the Homo genus, I’ve noticed modern humans branched off before Denisovans or Neanderals. To quote my bitchy 10th grade science teacher who was one of the few people to truly get it: “if you’re the first branch, and you don’t do anymore branching, then you’re less evolved than higher branches.”

So are we less evolved than Neanderthals and Denisovans and if so, how does this square with us being so superior? Well we can start by noting that evolvement is only a proxy for progress, there’s no reason to expect a perfect correlation. It’s only when you step back and look at the big picture does progress seem inevitable.

Secondly, we split from the ancestors of Neanderthals and Denisovans over half a million years ago, and only in the last 50,000 years did we show any kind of superiority. On the contrary, maybe they were superior because they occupied most of the World while we were confined to Africa and every time we tried to leave, they’d force us to retreat. Only in the Upper Paleolithic did we finally pull ahead.

Thirdly, the data might simply be wrong. Other genetic models show Denisovans branching off first:

Source: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/1-1-Phylogenetic-trees-showing-discrepancies-between-Denisova-autosomal-and-mtDNA_fig5_316890194