An established hypothesis explaining "The Out of Africa Event1" says that the cold climate or very arid conditions of the Pleistocene Epoch were most probably the driving-force of the H. erectus" migration out of Africa and into Eurasia, 1.8 -1.6 mya, but a perspective is offered here which blames frequent, lightningstrikes and misusage of fire by hominins as the agents that led to uncontrolled, widespread wildfires. Paleowinds advanced the wildfires according to wind direction, thus intensifying the widespread threat to the chagrin of the hominins. A Pleistocene, temporary, land bridge, enabled some hominins to escape the threat of widespread wildfires by allowing them to cross over from east Africa to Eurasia. One anomaly noted is that either the wildfires or some vast impediment prevented H. erectus from climbing latitudinal lines to north Africa at that time, but that delay to the mid-latitudes may have ended coincidently with Eurasian travel on the eastern coastline of the juxtaposed Red Sea. The sea would have acted as a natural fire-retardant allowing hominins to finally move up to the mid-latitudes. The northbound migration would have also forced tropically-derived hominins to quickly adapt to environmental change and low temperatures while a rationalization is proposed concerning how they may have tackled their newest challenges.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
customersupport@researchsolutions.com
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Copyright © 2025 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.