Senior author Professor Chronis Tzedakis (UCL Geography) said: “Our discovery of an extreme glacial cooling event around 1.1 million years ago challenges the concept of constant early human occupation of Europe.”.
Paleoclimate scientists from UCL, the University of Cambridge, and CSIC Barcelona analyzed the chemical structure of marine micro-organisms and examined the pollen content in a deep-sea sediment core recuperated from off the coast of Portugal. This exposed the presence of abrupt environment changes that culminated in severe glacial cooling, with ocean surface area temperature levels off Lisbon dropping below 6 ° C and semi-deserts expanding on the nearby land.
A video highlighting how paleoclimate evidence shows that around 1.1 million years ago, the southern European environment cooled substantially and likely triggered a termination of early people on the continent, according to a new study led by UCL researchers. Credit: UCL.
Lead author Dr. Vasiliki Margari (UCL Geography) said: “To our surprise, we discovered that this cooling at 1.1 million years ago was similar to a few of the most severe events of recent ice ages.”.
Co-author Professor Nick Ashton of the British Museum stated: “A cooling of this magnitude would have positioned little hunter-gatherer bands under substantial stress, specifically since early humans might have done not have adaptations such as adequate fat insulation and also the means to make fire, efficient clothing or shelters.”.
To examine the climate impact on early human populations, co-corresponding author Professor Axel Timmermann and his team from the IBS Center for Climate Physics at Pusan National University ran an environment simulation on their supercomputer Aleph to capture the severe conditions during this time. Integrating the output of the simulation with fossil and historical evidence of human occupation in southwest Eurasia, the team then developed a human environment design, which forecasts how suitable the environment was for early human occupation.
Professor Axel Timmermann said: “The outcomes revealed that 1.1 million years ago environment around the Mediterranean ended up being too hostile for archaic human beings.”.
Together, the paleoclimate information and human environment design results suggest that Iberia, and more usually southern Europe, was depopulated during the Early Pleistocene. An obvious absence of stone tools and human remains over the next 200,000 years further raises the possibility of a long-lasting hiatus in European occupation.
Co-author Professor Chris Stringer of the Natural History Museum in London said: “According to this scenario, Europe may have been recolonized around 900,000 years ago by more resilient humans with behavioral or evolutionary modifications that permitted survival in the increasing strength of glacial conditions.”.
Recommendation: “Extreme glacial cooling most likely led to hominin depopulation of Europe in the Early Pleistocene” by Vasiliki Margari, David A. Hodell, Simon A. Parfitt, Nick M. Ashton, Joan O. Grimalt, Hyuna Kim, Kyung-Sook Yun, Philip L. Gibbard, Chris B. Stringer, Axel Timmermann and Polychronis C. Tzedakis, 10 August 2023, Science.DOI: 10.1126/ science.adf4445.
The research was led by researchers at UCL Geography and the IBS Center for Climate Physics, Pusan National University, South Korea in partnership with scientists from the Cambridge University, CSIC Barcelona, the Natural History Museum, London, the British Museum and the UCL Institute of Archaeology.
New research reveals that a severe glacial cooling around 1.1 million years ago in southern Europe likely led to the extinction of early people on the continent. This discovery challenges the formerly held belief of constant human occupation in Europe throughout that period. (Artists idea).
Paleoclimate evidence shows that roughly 1.1 million years ago, there was a considerable drop in temperature in southern Europe. This climate shift most likely led to the disappearance of early human populations in the area, according to a brand-new research study led by UCL scientists.
The research, which was released in the journal Science, unveiled that previously unrecognized severe glacial conditions took place about 1.1 million years ago. This intense cold spell made the European climate inhospitable for early people, leading to the continent being lacking human residents.
The earliest known human remains in Europe have actually previously been recuperated from Iberia and suggest that early humans had actually gotten here from southwest Αsia about 1.4 million years earlier. The environment around that time would have typically been damp and warm, punctuated by moderate cold periods. Already, the prevailing theory has been that when people got here, they were able to survive through several climate cycles and adjust to progressively extreme conditions 900,000 years earlier.
New research study exposes that an extreme glacial cooling around 1.1 million years earlier in southern Europe most likely led to the extinction of early human beings on the continent. This discovery challenges the formerly held belief of constant human profession in Europe during that duration. The earliest recognized human remains in Europe have previously been recuperated from Iberia and suggest that early people had actually arrived from southwest Αsia about 1.4 million years back. Up to now, the dominating theory has been that as soon as people got here, they were able to endure through numerous environment cycles and adjust to significantly extreme conditions 900,000 years ago.
