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The branch on the tree of life that is the genus Homo is a gnarled, twisty one with many offshoots and dead ends. Of at least six species who have walked the Earth within the past few million years, all but one have gone extinct, for reasons that are largely a mystery.
Now, an extensive modeling study based on paleoclimatic data and nearly 3,000 archaeological records suggests that global cooling episodes were a major driver of the extinction of the Neanderthals as well as the long-gone Homo species H. erectus and H. heidelbergensis. To the authors of the research—published today (October 15) in One Earth—the findings are an ominous warning from the past with regard to our own future in a rapidly warming climate. But some other experts note that the fossil record isn’t reliable enough to draw such conclusions about past hominin extinctions with certainty.
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