Scientists have discovered a surprising link between the 2.7-million-year-old climate tipping point and human evolution in a recent study.
The researchers, led by the University of Cambridge, analyzed deep-sea sediment cores off the coast of Portugal to reconstruct 5.3 million years of climate history.
According to the findings published in the journal Science About 2.7 million years ago, Earth’s climate became significantly chaotic, leading to the expansion of the Northern Hemisphere’s ice caps and the onset of ‘cold spikes’.
According to Professor David Hodell of Cambridge’s Department of Earth Sciences, who led the research, “These events may have been a harbinger of things to come, because 2.5 million years ago we begin to see a clear pattern of multiple rapid fluctuations in Earth’s climate, on thousand-year time scales.”
According to the results, abrupt climate shifts only began when the ice age exceeded a specific threshold where ice sheets were large enough and oceans sensitive enough to cause instability. The researchers called this transition a “climate hitting a sweet spot.”
This climate tipping point coincided with the emergence of humans, the genus Homo. Such a surprising discovery also suggests the potential role of climate variability in driving and shaping early human evolution.
The theory also suggests that early humans had to develop higher intelligence and flexibility to survive the rapid changes in vegetation and environment caused by the cold snap.
The recent study aims to broaden scientists’ understanding of climate science and unlock the secrets of climate variability throughout Earth’s history.
