Kings College London virologist Professor Stuart Neil said the research was a sign that the world is getting warmer in identifying where Sars-Cov-2 came from. 
These [viruses] are still not close enough to be ancestral, but they point towards even closer relatives being out there undiscovered.
A third pre-print, from a British team, tracks the evolutionary history of the virus and its viral family in bats across Asia. It concludes Sars-CoV-2 diverged from its closest viral relatives 40 years ago, and calls for urgent research into what happened in between then and now.  
The natural spillover scenario was always the most plausible because of the association with the market, said Prof Robertson, a co-author of the pre-print. This is being supported by the finding of more related viruses in bats.  
He said the evidence was mounting now simply because science is a process. 
Its not a court case where we investigated and we have all the evidence, things will keep unfolding and undoubtedly we will find closer viruses.
People are looking at this in China, Vietnam, and southeast Asia. For all we know, they have already sampled caves in China and know exactly what happened, but they are not telling us because they dont want to be blamed.
He added: The smoking guns are the market, the Sars-like evolution, the predictions that this would happen, and the finding of new viruses that are closer than RaTG13. The smoking guns are all there we just dont have the actual gun. 
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