New Evidence Suggests the First Major Glaciation Drove Hominins Out of Africa

The Pleistocene Migration: Climate Change's Role in Hominin Exodus

Unveiling Climate Change as the Driving Force

In a groundbreaking study reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences¹, planetary scientists Giovanni Muttoni from the University of Milan and Dennis Kent from Columbia University delve into the intricacies of the Pleistocene migration, proposing climate change as the pivotal factor shaping hominin dispersal out of Africa over a million years ago. By synthesizing geological and genetic evidence, the researchers offer a nuanced understanding of this seminal event in human prehistory.

A record of Earth’s temperature cycles over millions of years is preserved in this loess paleosol sequence in Kostolac, Serbia, including a cold snap that is thought to be causing our genetic bottleneck. Photo credit: Giovanni Muttoni