Debate Heats Up On Role Of Climate In Human Evolution

Eurekalert ^ | 11-3-2003 | Geological Society Of America

[blam]

Contact: Ann Cairns
acairns@geosociety.org
303-357-1056
Geological Society of America

Debate heats up on role of climate in human evolution

Boulder, Colo.- Scientists at the Geological Society of America annual meeting in Seattle next week are taking a comprehensive new look at drivers of human evolution. It now appears that climate variability during the Plio-Pleistocene (approximately 6 million years in duration) played a hugely important role. Astronomically controlled climate forcing on scales ranging from 20,000 to 100,000 years down to El Niños (5-7 years) made a highly unpredictable environment in which generalists with intelligence, language, and creativity were best able to adapt. Traditional studies of human evolution have focused largely on finding and dating hominid fossils. Today the investigation is rapidly expanding with advances in DNA research and understanding of global climate change. The combination of archeological, geologic, and paleoclimatic evidence allows scientists to explore such tantalizing questions as:

What were the drivers that may have nudged hominids toward bi-pedalism? Why did only one species ultimately succeed at it? How might global climate change have influenced brain development, development of tools, and the exodus from Africa? How did glacial periods in Europe, Asia, and North America impact humans? "The answers to these questions will not all come from the bones, but from what was taking place in the environment in which they were found," says Gail Ashley, Dept. of Geological Sciences, Rutgers University.

Ashley and Craig Feibel of Rutgers have assembled an interdisciplinary group of distinguished scientists – physical anthropologists, archaeologists, geologists, and paleoclimatologists – for a Pardee Keynote Symposia, The Paleoenvironmental and Paleoclimatic Framework of Human Evolution. The symposium takes place at GSA on Monday, Nov. 3.

William Ruddiman, celebrated author of Earth's Climate: Past and Future, provides an overview of climate change over the last several million years, helping to separate fact from fiction.

Bernard Wood, a world-renowned physical anthropologist, discusses the hominin family "Tree of Life" and the challenges of working with the meager fossil record of human evolution spanning the last 7 million years.

Thure Cerling is a pioneer in using isotope records of bones and teeth. With co-authors Meave Leakey and John Harris he provides a comprehensive look at the impact of climate change on the biological record from one of richest fossil sites in the world (Lake Tukana, Kenya).

Jonathan Wynn unravels some of the paleoclimate puzzles from fossil soils at key sites in the "Cradle of Mankind" in East Africa. The soils provide clear documentation of extremely arid events. Prolonged droughts may have been a factor in triggering migrations of hominins out of Africa.

Julia Lee-Thorpe, a trail blazing geochemist, has taken a more personal approach to human evolution by examining hominin nutrition through analyses of tooth enamel. Diet is a direct record of available food resources and an indirect record of the environment in which the individual lived.

Andrew Hill, a globally recognized expert on the paleontological record in East Africa, reports on the latest findings from the superb paleoenvironmental record of the Tugen Hills, Kenya (site of the discovery of the 6 million-year-old "Millennium Man").

Gail Ashley speculates on the critical role of the availability of water in affecting human evolution, based on studies from Olduvai Gorge and other fossil localities. Dramatic fluctuations in climate (wet to dry) in East Africa may have been an important factor in affecting natural selection of species able to cope through arid periods.

David Lordkipanidze and Reid Ferring tell an exciting chapter on the "Out-of-Africa" story from Dmanisi, Republic of Georgia. The 1.8 million-year-old hominin remains are the first discoveries outside Africa to show clear affinities to early African Homo.

Rick Potts, author of the provocative book Humanity's Descent: The Consequences of Ecological Instability, contributes important new findings from China revealing the successful adaption of some hominin groups 400,000 years ago to climatic fluctuations and drastic environmental change.

James Dixon, a recognized authority on peopling of the Americas, provides the most recent chapter in the record of humans. Continental ice sheets, sea level changes and the presence of the Bering land bridge effectively controlled immigration from Asia to the New World.

Craig Feibel provides perspective on the physical environmental constraints in which human evolution took place. He examines the role of geologic factors such as plate tectonics, sea level change, and climate fluctuations in affecting selective pressure on hominins and thereby impacting how and where humans evolved. The Paleoenvironmental and Paleoclimatic Framework of Human Evolution Monday, Nov. 3, 8:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m., WSCTC Ballroom 6B

During the GSA Annual Meeting, Nov. 2-5, contact Ann Cairns at the GSA Newsroom, Washington State Convention Center and Trade Center, Seattle, for assistance and to arrange for interviews: 206-219-4615.

Geological Society of America 115th Annual Meeting Nov. 2-5, 2003 Washington State Convention and Trade Center Seattle, WA, USA

Geological Society of America www.geosociety.org

[blam]

This could get interesting.

[U S Army EOD]

You have to note also that the more advanced cultures seem to be where there was the most change. They had to be smart to survive.

[farmfriend]

This could get interesting

Yes it could. Which group do I ping? Both?

[blam]

"You have to note also that the more advanced cultures seem to be where there was the most change. They had to be smart to survive."

I agree. I think the cold taught us how to plan and have a concept of the future. Those who didn't plan when things were good(warm), didn't survive when things were bad(cold).

[WackyKat]

The "Garden of Eden" sounds rather warm to me-just wearing fig leaves, I mean.

[farmfriend]

Rights, farms, environment ping.

Gods, Graves, Glyphs
List for articles regarding early civilizations , life of all forms, - dinosaurs - etc.

Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from either list.
I don't get offended if you want to be removed.

For real time political chat - Radio Free Republic chat room

[U S Army EOD]

Or if things were always warm, they still survived but never learned to plan.

[Semi Civil Servant]

"How did glacial periods in Europe, Asia, and North America impact humans?"


I really can't stay
But, baby, it's cold outside
I've got to go away
Ah, baby, it's cold outside
This evening has been
Been hoping that you'd drop in
So very nice
I'll hold your hands, they're just like ice

My mother will start to worry
Beautiful, what's your hurry
And father will be pacing the floor
Listen to the fireplace roar
So really I'd better scurry
Beautiful, please don't hurry
Maybe just a half a drink more
Put some records on while I pour

The neighbours might think
Baby, it's bad out there
Say, what's in this drink?
No cabs to be had out there
I wish I knew how
Your eyes are like starlight now
To break the spell
I'll take your hat, your hair looks swell

I ought to say no, no, no, sir
Mind if I move a little closer?
At least there will be, oh, but I tried
What's the sense of hurting my pride
I really can't stay
Baby don't hold out

Ah, but it's cold outside

I simply must go
Ah, baby, it's cold outside
The answer is no
You know it's cold outside
This welcome has been
How lucky that you dropped in
So nice and warm
Look out the window at that storm

My sister will be suspicious
Ah, your lips look delicious
My brother will be there at the door
Like waves upon a tropical shore
My maiden aunt's mind is visious
Ooh, your lips are delicious
Well maybe just a cigarette more
Never such a blizzard before

I've got to go home
But, baby, you'll freeze out there
Say, lend me a coat
You know it's up to your knees out there
You've really been grand
I thrill when you touch my hand
But don't you see
How can you do this thing to me

There's bound to be talk tomorrow
Making my life long sorrow
At least there will plenty implied
If you caught pnuemonia and died
I really can't stay
Get over that old doubt

Ah, but it's cold outside

[blam]

"Or if things were always warm, they still survived but never learned to plan."

Keep that up and we'll make an anthropologist outta you.

[editor-surveyor]

No scientist would ever use such an ignorant term as "human evolution."

Evolution is not science, it is the ignorant religion of the God haters. Objective science proves that creation is undeniable fact.

[U S Army EOD]

Do I get to wear a neat looking hat and carry a whip???

[U S Army EOD]

The main effects would have been migration. You either got run off when your world turned to ice or you went back after the ice left.

[blam]

"Do I get to wear a neat looking hat and carry a whip???"

Nah, that's archaeology. Anthropologists mostly think about what archaeologists find.

[blam]

"Ah, but it's cold outside"

My mother used to sing that song to me when I was young.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

Evolution is not science, it is the ignorant religion of the God haters. Objective science proves that creation is undeniable fact.

Evolution is science. Biologists refer to human evolution frequently. Christians who understand biology don't have a problem with this theory.

It is those folks who demand that science be curtailed are the God-haters. I know you don't have a dinosaur in your basement, or are in possession of a 12 billion year-old human fossil.

However, I agree that creation is a fact.

[U S Army EOD]

When you study on both sides of that belief, you find that they both support each other. Both religion and science has change, evolution, or whatever you want to call it in the same order.

For me I beleive in both concepts in the same way I beleave in heaven and hell. When I die, I am going to be very disappointed to find out no one was keeping score all along because I missed out on a lot of fun trying to follow the Ten Commandments.

[blam]

"The main effects would have been migration. You either got run off when your world turned to ice or you went back after the ice left."

Or, you planned and lived with it. The cold is also why we have white people...vitamin 'D' and all.

[WackyKat]

ignorant religion - Objective science

I have edited your post for clarity.

[U S Army EOD]

Well, I am a great believer in cause and effect. People just don't do things for no reason at all. They also interpret things based on their level of technoligy. And we interpret what they thought on our ability to deciper what they thought by looking at their records.