Key Points
Scientist David Lordkipanidze of the Georgian Academy of Sciences shows the skull - about about 1.8 million years old - of the early human species Homo erectus excavated near the town of Dmanisi, some 85 kms (53 miles) southwest of Tbilisi, July 8, 2002..
Scientists on Thursday described evidence of a massive North Atlantic cooling event about 1.1 million years ago that lasted roughly 4,000 years and appears to have wiped out the entire population of archaic humans who had colonized Europe...
Their cold tolerance may have been lacking, without sufficient fat insulation, while fashioning effective clothing and shelter and finding the means to make fire would have been challenging, the researchers said.. "There was probably a complete interruption in the early human occupation of Europe, possibly for a considerable time, with an entirely new population eventually coming back," said anthropologist Chris Stringer of the Natural History Museum in London, a co-author of the research published in the journal Science...
"If this is true, then Europe may have been recolonized around 900,000 years ago by more resilient humans with evolutionary or behavioral changes that allowed survival in the increasing intensity of glacial conditions," said University College London physical geography professor and study co-author Chronis Tzedakis...
Homo erectus remains are known in Georgia from about 1.8 million years ago, with stone tools in Italy and Spain about 1.5 million years ago, and incomplete human fossils, probably this species, in Spain about 1.4 and 1.2 million years ago...
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When Earth froze and so did our ancient ancestors
11, Aug, 23This climatic catastrophe is believed to have wiped out the entire population of Homo erectus, the first human species to have expanded beyond Africa, who had colonised Europe.
Big freeze drove early humans out of Europe
10, Aug, 23Severe cold a million years ago forced our ancestors from the continent, but they adapted and returned.