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At least six species of early humans walked the Earth nearly three million years ago, of which Homo sapiens is the only one that has survived. Multiple theories have been proposed to explain their gradual extinction with a new study published in the journal One Earth suggesting that climate change played an important role in shaping the evolutionary history of life on Earth. The study proposes that the inability to adapt to hot or cold weather sealed the deal on their fate.
Study co-author Pasquale Raia, from the University of Naples Federico II in Naples, Italy, said: “Our findings show that despite technological innovations including the use of fire and refined stone tools, complex social networks and In the case of Neanderthals – Even the production of glued spearheads, tight clothing, and a fair amount of cultural and genetic exchange with Homo sapiens, the Homo species of the past could not survive intense climate change.
“They tried really hard; they headed to the warmest places within reach when the weather got cold, but at the end of the day, that wasn’t enough.
The study combined climate models with data from the fossil record to analyze what happened to earlier members of the genus Homo.
These include Homo habilis (skillful man), Homo ergaster (working man), Homo erectus (upright man), Homo neanderthalensis (the Neanderthals), Homo Heidelbergensis (Heidelberg man), and Homo sapiens (wise man).
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The researchers’ climate models simulated rainfall and temperature data spanning the past five million years.
The study found that at least three Homo species, Homo erectus, Homo Heidelbergensis and Homo neanderthalsis, lost a portion of their “climate niche space” just before going extinct.
And the researchers believe this coincides with abrupt changes in the global climate and an increased vulnerability to these changes.
Professor Raia said: “We were surprised by the regularity of the effect of climate change.
“It was very clear, for extinct species and only for them, that the climatic conditions were too extreme just before extinction and only at that particular time.”
Continued emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2) have led to rising temperatures, rising sea levels, more extreme weather around the world, and the threat of entire ecosystems collapsing.
Some models predict that our planet is on its way to warming between 2 ° C and 6 ° C by the end of the 21st century.
And some of this warming is expected to occur even if future greenhouse gas emissions are reduced.
Warming will lead to increased rainfall, more frequent coastal flooding and erosion, melting of the ice caps and glaciers, and even affect the spread of infectious diseases.
As such, Professor Raia believes that it is critical to learn lessons from our past.
He said: “It is disturbing to find that our ancestors, who were no less impressive in terms of mental power compared to any other species on Earth, could not withstand climate change.
“And we found that just as our species is sawing the branch that we sit on, causing climate change.
“Personally, I take this as a thunderous warning message.
“Climate change made Homo vulnerable and hapless in the past, and this may be happening again.
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