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Although humans evolved in Africa some 300,000 years ago, it was not until they made lasting migrations out of the continent about 50,000 years ago.
“We’re ecosystem generalists,” Eleanor Scerri, an evolutionary archaeologist, said of Homo sapiens, emphasizing the species’ one-of-a-kind capacity to survive in a range of habitats — the tropical rainforest, the hot, desert, the frigid tundra. The findings indicate that our primal habits may have been less about a great leap forward, and more about a flexible sensibility for coping with challenging environments.
Adjustment to Novel and Newly Harsh Habitats
The researchers then compiled a database of archaeological sites across Africa, spanning from 120,000 to 14,000 years ago, to compare how ancient humans interacted with their environments. They worked backward through climate models to reconstitute conditions when such sites had been inhabited.
Human behavior changed a lot around 70,000 years ago, Emily Hallett, an author of the study, said. Evidence suggested that Homo sapiens had started to live in more extreme and diverse environments — like thick rainforests and arid deserts — environments that would demand new survival tactics. It is thought that this broader ecological niche paved the way for their subsequent successful colonization of the world.
Human Evolution in a Wider Setting
Though this new research points to the increasing adaptability of Homo sapiens, it also prompts broader questions. Other hominins, such as Neanderthals, also left Africa and founded long-term populations elsewhere, notes William Banks, an archaeologist who was not involved in the study.
The findings help to explain why Homo sapiens were unusually poised for global spread. But it does not account for why they emerged as the only surviving species of human beings. The question of what finally distinguished Homo sapiens from the other human groups remains a mystery.
