Climate and early human dispersal
Map showing the early (pre-LGM) dispersal of Homo sapiens, 200,000 to 32,000 years ago. Katerina Douka & Michelle O’Reilly, Michael D. Petraglia, CC-BY-SA 4.0 , Wikimedia Commons Climate and early human dispersal – Popular Archeology The role of climate shifts in shaping early Homo sapiens dispersal to East Asia is an important aspect of human history. However, the subject remains underexplored due to a lack of coordinated paleoclimate and paleoanthropological data. Hong Ao, Jiaoyang Ruan, and colleagues combined records of the Asian summer monsoon from the Chinese Loess Plateau with models of East Asian paleoclimate, compilations of paleoanthropological data, and simulations of Homo sapiens habitat suitability. The resulting reconstruction covers the last 280,000 years and connects the orbital-scale influences on Asian summer monsoon dynamics with early human dispersal. Concurrent Asian monsoon strengthening and early modern human dispersal to East Asia during the