Climate change shaped human evolution's last 2 million years

According to a new study, ancient humans evolved as a result of climate change by settling and adapting to different habitats.

Climate change caused by astronomical influences including tilt in the Earth's axis and variations in the shape of the Earth's orbit around the sun has altered how much solar radiation reaches the globe, according to a study published in Nature.

According to scholars, this contributed to the Ice Age and warmer interglacial times.

According to the study, these climatic variations dictated where food was accessible, causing migration and adaption.

"Even though different groups of archaic humans preferred different climatic environments, their habitats all responded to climate shifts caused by astronomical changes in Earth's axis wobble, tilt, and orbital eccentricity," says climate physicist Axel Timmermann from Pusan National University in South Korea, told sciencealert.com.

Homo neanderthalensis, Homo erectus, Homo heidelbergensis, African Homo — Homo habilis and Homo ergaster — and Homo sapiens had their environments mapped out.

Climate change and human evolution have been the subjects of previous research.

By integrating data from well-dated fossil remnants and archaeological artefacts, the researchers attempted to fill in the gaps. They used a supercomputer to retrace the earth's climate history over the last two million years.

According to their findings, Homo erectus and Homo sapiens had the largest environments. Early African Homo sapiens found refuge in eastern and southern Africa, whereas Neanderthals were more numerous in Europe. According to the findings, Homo heidelbergensis inhabited southern Africa, east Africa, and Eurasia.

The researchers noted that while all five human species had a predilection for a certain habitat, they all responded to climate change.