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Evaluating refugia in recent human evolution in Africa.

James Blinkhorn1,2, Lucy Timbrell3, Matt Grove3

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Late Pleistocene Homo sapiens adapted to diverse African habitats. New models suggest 27-66% of Africa served as persistent refugia, revealing crucial insights into human adaptation and phylogeography.

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Area of Science:

  • Paleoanthropology
  • Human Evolution
  • Climate Modeling

Background:

  • Homo sapiens exhibit remarkable adaptability to varied global environments.
  • Africa's unique persistence through glacial-interglacial cycles makes it ideal for testing refugia models.
  • Previous studies lacked explicit identification of refugia due to data limitations.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To identify persistent climatic refugia for Late Pleistocene Homo sapiens in Africa.
  • To model potential human habitation zones based on climatic thresholds.
  • To analyze precipitation, biome, and ecotone variability within identified refugia.

Main Methods:

  • Applied potential climatic thresholds for human habitation derived from ethnographic studies.
  • Utilized high-resolution model datasets for precipitation and biome distributions.
  • Developed two alternate models to estimate the extent of refugia.

Main Results:

  • Identified potential refugia covering 27% to 66% of Africa for Late Pleistocene populations.
  • Examined variability in precipitation, biome, and ecotone distributions within these refugial zones.
  • Provided a high-resolution assessment of potential refugia across Africa.

Conclusions:

  • Refugia played a significant role in the distribution and persistence of Late Pleistocene human populations in Africa.
  • The models offer a more refined understanding of African paleoenvironments and human adaptation.
  • This research contributes to understanding human phylogeography in relation to climate change.