BEIJING, Aug. 25 (Xinhua) -- Springer Nature's international academic journal Nature has published a latest paper on human evolution, saying that climatic conditions affected the timing and route of early Homo sapiens from Africa. This study highlights the role of paleoclimate variability in modern human diffusion events, or deepens understanding of the evolutionary history of Homo sapiens.
Researchers have reached a consensus on the spread of early humans out of Africa and around the world, but due to the lack of relevant fossil and ancient DNA evidence, the timing and route of early human migration to Eurasia has been different.
Based on this, the corresponding authors, Robert Beyer and Andrea Manica of the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, and colleagues used paleoclimate reconstruction and estimates of the minimum rainfall needed for hunter-gatherers to analyze when and where early Homo sapiens may have been helped by favorable weather conditions and wet passages to Eurasia when and where they left Africa. The timing and route they modeled were consistent with archaeological and genetic evidence, showing that there have been multiple outward migrations from Africa over the past 300,000 years.
The authors argue that harsh environmental conditions in southwestern Asia, intermittent arrivals from Africa, and possible competition with other archaeopterans may explain why early attempts by Homo sapiens to settle permanently in Eurasia failed until a larger migration about 65,000 years ago was successful.
The authors say their study gives a picture of when historically there was a suitable climate for Homo sapiens to leave Africa. However, further research is needed in the future to analyze whether Homo sapiens has seized these opportunities. (End)
Source: China News Network
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