Extreme glacial cooling likely led to hominin depopulation of Europe in the Early Pleistocene

Abstract

The oldest known hominin remains in Europe [~1.5 to ~1.1 million years ago (Ma)] have been recovered from Iberia, where paleoenvironmental reconstructions have indicated warm and wet interglacials and mild glacials, supporting the view that once established, hominin populations persisted continuously. We report analyses of marine and terrestrial proxies from a deep-sea core on the Portugese margin that show the presence of pronounced millennial-scale climate variability during a glacial period ~1.154 to ~1.123 Ma, culminating in a terminal stadial cooling comparable to the most extreme events of the last 400,000 years. Climate envelope–model simulations reveal a drastic decrease in early hominin habitat suitability around the Mediterranean during the terminal stadial. We suggest that these extreme conditions led to the depopulation of Europe, perhaps lasting for several successive glacial-interglacial cycles.

Regional extinction(s) but continental persistence in European Acheulean culture

“…Demographic trends in Lower Palaeolithic Europe have recently been argued to represent "discontinuous, fragmented European populations who, like those of the Early Pleistocene, visited rather than occupied the continent" (French, 2021: 128). Other studies have returned similar conclusions for the European Middle Pleistocene based on the fragmented evidence we currently possess (e.g., Mosquera et al, 2013;Moncel et al, 2020a;Ashton and Davis, 2021;Margari et al, 2023). A sparse archaeological record is not, however, tantamount to an absence of hominin populations.…”

Quantifying hominin morphological diversity at the end of the middle Pleistocene: Implications for the origin of Homo sapiens

“…The first occurrence of the Acheulean in Europe is documented in the South of the Italian peninsula at Notarchirico, as well as at La Noira and Moulin Quignon, in central France at around 700 ka (Moncel, Despriée, et al, 2020; Moncel et al, 2020; Antoine et al, 2019), which is corresponds to, or slightly predates, the genetic split between H. neanderthalensis and H. sapiens . Following a period of probable depopulation of Europe around 1.1 Ma: (Margari et al, 2023), the arrival of new hominin populations in Eurasia may then have been favored by the extension of grasslands to higher latitudes towards the end of the Middle Pleistocene Transition (i.e., from 1.25 Ma to ca. 700 ka; Dean et al, 2015) and the subsequent opening of migration corridors from East Africa in particular (Abbate & Sagri, 2012; Beyin et al, 2019; Head & Gibbard, 2015).…”

“…et al, 2019), which is corresponds to, or slightly predates, the genetic split between H. neanderthalensis and H. sapiens. Following a period of probable depopulation of Europe around 1.1 Ma:(Margari et al, 2023), the arrival of new hominin populations in Eurasia may then have been favored by the extension of grasslands to higher latitudes towards the end of the Middle Pleistocene Transition (i.e., from…”

Editorial: The adaptive value of languages: non-linguistic causes of language diversity, volume II

“…These findings support the idea that the phonological inventories of present day languages have been clearly impacted in terms of their composition during the last few hundred years of colonialization. Thus, like the diachrony of language change through time, Hartmann et al ( 2024 ) suggest that non-linguistic “historical” variables, such as climate which is known to change through time and has impacted the human body and behavior (Warden et al, 2017 ; Klein et al, 2023 ; Margari et al, 2023 ), be accounted for as a confound. That said, as one goes back to a deeper past, this homogeneity can be safely expected to be replaced by real discontinuities.…”