Many close relatives of our species, Homo sapiens, The genus has since gone to this earth Homo Developed 2 million years ago. These hominins lived in a variety of habitats and challenging environments. Some even crossed the road and interfered.
Although more than one significant technological and cognitive goal has been reached, such as controlling fire, developing stone tools or making clothing, today only we, H. Sapiens, Survive.
Scholars have debated much about our current specificity. Some have made such a proposal H. Sapiens‘Better technical capabilities have given us an advantage over the rest. Others have suggested that we may have eaten a more varied diet or be more efficient runners than other hominins.
Meanwhile, other researchers say that, due to high levels of interbreeding, some hominins have not been able to become extinct enough to fully merge with our gene pool.
Researchers also speculate that climate change could play a role in extinction. Homo Species. In a new study published in the journal An earth, A multidisciplinary team of scientists from Italy, the United Kingdom and Brazil make the case that this factor was the main driver for the extinction of other hominins.
The authors believe the findings could serve as a warning as humanity today faces man-made climate change.
“The power of the brain in the animal kingdom [the Homo genus]”When climate change can’t survive, people can’t live,” says Pascole Raiya, a paleontologist at the University of Naples Federico II, one of the authors of the study. “People should take into account that, given the situation we’re in.”
For this study, the team focused on only six recognized Homo Species: H. Habilis, h. Ergaster, h. Erectus, H. Heidelbergenesis, h. Neanderthalnsis, And H. Sapiens. They ignored others because records of available fossils were too limited for their analysis.
Using a fossil database spread over 2,754 archaeological records, the researchers traced the whereabouts of these species over time – linking fossil evidence and tools associated with each species to different locations and periods.
They also used statistical model modeling techniques known as past climate emulators, using available records to reconstruct climatic conditions, including temperature and rainfall, over the last million years.
Anthropologist Giorgio Manzi says, “This gives a picture of the tremendous effects of adverse atmospheric conditions.”
For three of the five extinct species – H. Erectus, H. Heidelbergenesis, And H. Neanderthalnsis – Before these species died, there was a sudden, dramatic change in the climate on Earth. Climes became cold for all three, for the dryer H. Hildelbergenesis And Neanderthals and waiters H. Erectus. According to Raiya, the change in annual average temperature was about 4 to 5 degrees Celsius.
The researchers further assessed how susceptible these species are to extinction by trying to determine their tolerance to climate change from time to time, using their presence at various locations as an indication of their preferred structure.
The team decided that, before disappearing, H. Erectus And H. Heidelbergenesis Lost more than half of their niche to climate change. Neanderthals lost by about a quarter. As the habitat changes, food sources are likely to dwindle, and cold species are more likely to survive for species with warmer climates.
This climate explanation does not mean that other drivers of extinction were not important – the authors note that the competition with it H. SapiensFor Neanderthals, for example, the situation could get worse – but Raiya and her colleagues believe that their analysis reveals a “primary factor” in the past. Homo Extinction.
The extinction of Neanderthals has been studied – and discussed – but the damage to other hominin species has received little attention, says University of Utah archaeologist Tyler Faith, who was not involved in the study. This new study presents the first attempt to understand how multiple Homo The species died in space and most of the time, he says.
“But I think other potential extinction methods are a little too early to dismantle,” Faith adds. He noted that for some species, limited fossil records make it difficult to keep a complete picture of environmental or climatic conditions, while others Homo Species can control.
Similarly, Giorgio Manzi, an ethnographer at the University of Sepianza in Rome, who was not a contributor to the study, notes that many factors must be taken into account in order for the past to disappear. Homo Species.
The relationship between climate change and extinction, he says, is complex, and one does not always lead to the other: “Various contingent climate breakdowns and environmental crises have been known for at least the last million years. These circumstances did not always lead to extinction.”
Nevertheless, Manzi believes the new work makes a reasonable case that climate change could have a major impact.
“This paints a tremendous impact on the human population of various species,” says Manzi.
With temperatures expected to drop as much as 5 degrees Celsius above the bias level by 2100, more climate challenges lie ahead.
This work first appeared on SAPIENS under the CC BY-ND 4.0 license. Read the original here.
.
