Washington – WASHINGTON (AP) – Humans are the only animals that live in almost every possible environment, from rainforests to deserts to tundra.
This adaptability is a skill in the early modern era for a long time. Ancient Homo sapiens survived by finding food and other resources in various difficult habitats before spreading from Africa about 50,000 years ago, according to a new study published in nature on Wednesday.
“Our superpower is that we are generalists in ecosystems,” said Eleanor Scerri, an evolutionary archaeologist at the Max Planck Geoantollogology Academy in Jena, Germany.
Our species first evolved in Africa about 300,000 years ago. While previous fossil discoveries suggest that some groups made early advances outside the mainland, lasting human settlements in the rest of the world did not occur until a series of migrations about 50,000 years ago.
“How is the situation different for successful migrations – why should humans be ready this time?” said Emily Hallett, an archaeologist at Loyola University in Chicago, and co-author Emily Hallett.
Earlier theories suggest that important technological advances may have been made in the Stone Age or a new way of sharing information was developed, but researchers have found no evidence to support this.
This study takes a different approach by studying the characteristics of flexibility itself.
Scientists have formed a database of archaeological sites that existed in Africa from 120,000 to 14,000 years ago. For each site, the researchers modeled the local climate during the period when ancient humans lived.
“At 70,000 years ago, the range of habitats used by humans changed a lot,” Harlett said. “We see a very clear signal that humans live in more challenging and extreme environments.”
Although humans have long lived in savannas and forests, they moved to everything from dense rainforests to arid deserts 50,000 years ago, developing what Harret called “ecological flexibility to make them successful.”
Bordeaux archaeologist William Banks said that while this leap in ability is impressive, it is important not to assume that only Homo sapiens can do it.
He said other groups of early human ancestors also left Africa and established long-term settlements elsewhere, including those of Neanderthals who evolved into Europe.
He said the new study helps explain why humans are ready to return to the world, but that does not answer the lasting question of why our species are only retained today.
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