Past extinctions of homo species coincided with increased vulnerability to climatic change

Abstract

Highlights d Climate change is a major factor in evolution, shaping the history of life on Earth d Humans usually feel excluded by climate change-induced extinction risk d We demonstrate that climate change drove past human species extinct

Estimating origination times from the early hominin fossil record

“…The extrinsic phenomenon is assumed to have driven biotic change, and thus it is interpreted as being partly, or even wholly, responsible for that species' origination 1,2 . Similar arguments are also used to link extrinsic phenomena with the most recent fossil evidence of a hominin taxon to explain that taxon's extinction 3 . The observed earliest and most recent fossil evidence of hominin species are also used to estimate taxic diversity and patterns of turnover of taxa or communities over time.…”

“…1,2 Similar arguments are also used to link extrinsic phenomena with the most recent fossil evidence of a hominin taxon to explain that taxon's extinction. 3 The observed earliest and most recent fossil evidence of hominin species are also used to estimate taxic diversity and patterns of turnover of taxa or communities over time. However, some paleoanthropologists have been aware of the perils of conflating the earliest and most recent fossil evidence of a taxon with its true origination and extinction, 4 and researchers have suggested ways of placing confidence intervals on the origin and extinction of lineages.…”