Parental care, brain plasticity, extended juvenile period
Play evolved as one of the group survival traits. Lower play abilities evolved in mammals like rodents about 190 million years ago. Higher play abilities evolved in mammals like cats about 80 million years ago.
Human extinction is not the story of one straight line leading neatly to us. It is the story of many ancient human species living at different times, sometimes side by side, with most eventually disappearing while one lineage survived and spread.