The first humans in Europe likely met their demise around 1.1 million years ago due to a sudden freeze.

 

A recent study reveals that Europe experienced a period of "extreme cooling" approximately 1.1 million years ago, which aligns with a period devoid of hominin habitation.

A fresh study reveals that the initial human inhabitants of Europe, belonging to the archaic human species Homo erectus, likely met their demise due to an "extreme cooling event" approximately 1.1 million years ago.

This previously undisclosed temperature decline corresponds with the established knowledge regarding human presence on the continent. Fossil remains and stone tools have indicated that Homo erectus migrated from Asia to Europe between 1.8 million and 1.4 million years ago, as confirmed by earlier research. Nonetheless, it appears that this population vanished from Europe around 1.1 million years ago.

Subsequently, evidence of archaic humans resurfaces in Europe about 900,000 years ago—potentially following the arrival of a later and more robust species, Homo antecessor, from either Africa or Asia.

"There seems to be a notable 200,000-year interval," noted Chronis Tzedakis, a paleoclimatologist at University College London and the senior author of the study. "This temporal gap coincides precisely with the recently uncovered cooling episode. This implies that the abrupt cold period potentially played a role in either forcing the migration or causing the extinction of archaic humans," as delineated in the study published on August 10 in the journal Science.

Evidence from the ocean

The investigators uncovered signs of the cooling episode by studying sediment cores obtained from the ocean floor off the coast of Portugal. By analyzing isotopes of elements within the remnants of marine plankton sourced from both the ocean surface and seabed, along with an examination of pollen grains from terrestrial vegetation, they identified an abrupt cooling event around 1.15 million years ago. Tzedakis highlighted that the water temperature in the vicinity of Lisbon, which currently averages around 70 degrees Fahrenheit (21 degrees Celsius), plummeted to approximately 43 F (6 C) during this period. Simultaneously, Europe experienced a comparable cold phase, potentially driving the expansion of its northern ice sheets southward. The researchers also ascertained that a continuous influx of cold water began roughly 1.13 million years ago, attributed to the thawing of Europe's ice sheets as the continent underwent warming. Historically, our planet has traversed various cycles of cold and warm periods, with conventional timelines indicating a peak ice age around 900,000 years ago. Although indications of an earlier cold interval around 1.1 million years ago had been proposed, concrete evidence was lacking until now. The principal driver of this cooling phenomenon appears to be celestial in nature: the gravitational pull of Jupiter influenced Earth's orbit during that period, resulting in a more circular path around the sun. This orbital configuration has historically correlated with other cooling phases in Earth's climate. The era also coincided with a significant decline in the concentration of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide within Earth's atmosphere. However, it remains uncertain whether this reduction instigated the cooling or was a byproduct of it.

Severe Cold

The recent study also offers an intricate reconstruction, overseen by co-author Axel Timmermann, a climate scientist at the Institute for Basic Science in South Korea. This reconstruction highlights that the period of intense cooling would have rendered Europe too frigid to sustain archaic humans.

The plummeting temperatures would have posed challenges for their food acquisition, as the diminished plant life and the animals dependent on them would have struggled to survive. Additionally, archaic humans themselves were ill-suited for such cold conditions.

The researchers elaborated on this deteriorating environment, explaining that it would have posed significant challenges to small hunter-gatherer groups. This challenge would have been exacerbated by the fact that early hominins lacked adequate insulation from body fat and the means to create fire, effective clothing, or shelters. Consequently, their population resilience would have been substantially reduced, as articulated in the study.

Michael Petraglia, a paleoanthropologist and the director of the Australian Centre for Human Evolution at Griffith University in Brisbane, commented that the recent study is highly plausible.

"The congruence among the environmental evidence, fossil findings, and archaeological data strongly supports the idea of regional abandonment or even extinction of early human populations," he conveyed in an email correspondence with Live Science.

Although Petraglia wasn't directly involved in the research, he emphasized its significance in the context of contemporary climate change studies.

"This narrative underscores how climatic fluctuations had profound repercussions on early human populations, underscoring the relevance for today's global population who confront extreme weather events and shifts in ecosystems," he emphasized.