The genus Homo sapiens arose as a result of rapid climate change, scientists say
Last reviewed: 16.10.2021
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Some argue that climate change will destroy people as a species. And then we will be killed by what has produced us: the swift fluctuations of the world average temperature 3-2 million years ago coincide with the golden age of human evolution.
Fossil evidence suggests that eight other species originated from one species of hominins, an Australopithecus of Africa, which lived about 2.7 million years ago. The first representatives of our genus appeared somewhere 2.5-2.4 million years ago, and a right-browed man - the first hominin who left Africa - was born about 1.8 million years ago.
Matt Grove of Liverpool University (Great Britain) decided to find out what role the climate could play at this stage of evolution. He turned to the data set collected by Lauren Lisicki from the University of California at Santa Barbara (USA). Ms. Lisicki analyzed the content of oxygen isotopes in the shells of fossilized foraminifera. During the glacial periods, they contain an increased concentration of the heavier isotope, while the lighter one accumulates in snow and ice, and not in the ocean.
Mr. Grove found that the average temperature changed three times relatively suddenly over the past 5 million years. Each such change is equivalent to a temperature difference between glacial and interglacial periods, but none of these episodes occurred in the "golden age" of hominins. But this era was characterized by a broader temperature range, that is, a time of rapid and transient climate change. According to the scientist, the rapidity of the changes made the ancient people develop a special ability for adaptation, which, in fact, our family distinguishes.
The specialist recalls that the main features of a straight erect person, which increased his chances of survival, are teeth suitable for any type of diets, and a large brain. Probably, all this was formed in response to rapid climate change.