Big freeze drove early humans out of Europe, scientists reveal - BBC News

next researchers have discovered a previously unknown sudden cold snap that wiped out humans living in Europe 1.1 million years ago new evidence published in the journal science suggests that the continent was unpopulated for around 200 000 years after that until humans adapted to cope with the colder conditions our science correspondent palat Ghosh explains British researchers scour the shores of North Norfolk for the fossilized remains of the very first humans to have lived in Britain it's long been held that they came to Europe from Africa and never left but a secret found at the bottom of the sea suggests that they were all wiped out this strip of mud from the ocean floor has changed the human story in Europe analysis in the lab in Barcelona of the chemicals inside it shows that temperatures plummeted more than a million years ago that would have meant for the humans not only that they would have trouble to find resources for example food but also that the extreme conditions have led to the depopulation of this early humans from Europe researchers found that there was no evidence for humans in Europe for 200 000 years after that but then early humans came back these footprints found under the Sands of the north Norfolk Coast are some of the first humans to have returned after this newly discovered Ice Age let's imagine what it was like and how they survived hayesboro was one of the first places those early humans came back to around 900 000 years ago long before it was a beach the big freeze was over but it was still cold much colder than it is today so they had to learn how to cope by building better shelters and developing better hunting techniques for food and Furs to stay warm they may even have become hairier this is important because it shows that our early ancestors were inventive and adaptable which is why we are here today I mean this is amazing researchers are still searching for what remains of these humans these are the stone tools they learned how to make they're adapting the whole time to new environments new climates right the way through the ice ages and developing new technologies the face is really quite delicately built this is a reconstruction of a skull of one of those early humans smaller brained but gradually evolving into more advanced species the researchers say in the journal science and that species was certainly more evolved things like a larger brain a more modern looking face teeth that are more like ours the new results are another piece of the jigsaw that helps to explain how humans evolved and learned how to tame nature to become the dominant species on the planet BBC News hayesboro

Channel: BBC News

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Keywords: bbc, bbc news, news, world news, breaking news, us news, world

Id: sfpEpsUFKwk

Length: 3min 9sec (189 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 11 2023