The University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent, CT2 7NZ, T +44 (0)1227
764000 Global spread of humans was influenced by climate change
A multidisciplinary project involving scientists from the
universities of Kent, Cambridge and Bristol indicates that the
global expansion of humans was influenced by climate change. By
integrating genetics with high resolution climate
reconstructions, the team's research, which was published by the
journal PNAS on 18 September, has been able to predict the
timing and routes taken by modern humans during their expansion
out of Africa. The role of climate change in determining the
timing of the expansion of human populations has been long
debated. The oldest fossil remains of anatomically modern humans
are found in Africa and date back to around 200 thousand years
ago, but how and when people expanded from Africa is highly
controversial. The newly published research provides the first
direct link between climate change and the timing of the
expansion out of Africa, as well as the rout