Climate change shaped humans

• Autores: Michael Slezak
• Localización: New scientist, ISSN 0262-4079, Nº. 3039, 2015, págs. 8-9
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • The ways in which climate affected human evolution have been hotly debated for over a century. A persistent idea is that the challenging climate of southern Africa--a sparsely vegetated, dry savannah--drove humans to walk on two legs, grow large brains and develop technology. He was hooked on the savannah-adaptation idea in my studies in the 1980s, says Rick Potts from the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC. Potts to suggest that maybe it was environmental change itself--not a particular environment--that drove human evolution. A rise in variability of climate places a premium on being nimble, versatile, to ensure survival, he says