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The scene could have been straight out of one of the “Night at the Museum” movies: The public filtered out of the American Museum of Natural History at closing time, while Rob DeSalle headed deep into the museum’s anthropology wing.

Down a long hallway lined with specimen cabinets, he hung a left at a hanging skeleton and entered the office of a fellow researcher, Ian Tattersall, for their regular Friday night anthropological happy hour.

The two men — respected research scientists who work on museum collections and exhibitions — began sipping beer and talking shop, which in this case involved evolutionary theory.

Over the past dozen years, they have jointly written 10 books and scores of scientific articles and papers on human biology and language — with their latest book, “The Accidental Homo Sapiens,” coming out this month.