The modern man inhabited the rainforest clearly earlier than thought

Early people inhabited African rainforests at least 150,000 years ago, new proof indicate.

Modern man Homo sapiens Born and developed in Africa about 300,000 years ago. However, under the circumstances of our species, we still have little known.

Early people have long been associated with African savannahs and grasslands. Rainforests have been regarded as environments where human settlement would only have spread relatively recently.

Now Researchers at the German Max Planck Institute and their colleagues are expanding the image of our wandering ancestors.

The findings made from the current Civilian Coast are so far the oldest known evidence of human dwelling in ancient rainforest.

The findings suggest that West Africa may have been an important center in the early evolution of modern man. According to researchers, our species developed in several areas and in different living environments.

The results were published on Wednesday’s science magazine Nature.

International In 2020, the group began to re-examine the place, where the team, consisting of Civilian and Soviet researchers, found rocky tools back in the 1980s.

At that time, the age of the deep stratification of the rain forest could not be determined. Even the ecological environment in the area was not known at the time of use of tools.

The excavations of Bété are located about twenty kilometers north of the largest city in Civen coast.

Several recent climate models suggest that the area may have remained as a rainforest even in dry seasons, when conditions have changed elsewhere, says Professor of Geoantropology at the Max Planck Institute Eleanor Scerri in the shared pre -report to suppliers.

The place was the best opportunity to find out how far into the past the coexistence of man and rainforest would extend.

“Before our study, the oldest-sustaining evidence of settlement in Africa’s rainforest was about 18,000 years ago, and the oldest evidence of living in the rainforest wherever was from Southeast Asia about 70,000 years ago,” says the first writer of the study Eslem Ben Arous.

Thus, according to recent findings, one has lived in the rainforest more than twice as long as previously calculated.

However reference The fact that a person would have left signs of the coastal damp forest area at least 77,000 years ago.

Ben Arous and colleagues used several techniques to determine what time and the habitat the tools are from.

According to the analyzes, there was a lot of forest in the area, and pollen and leaf waxes were typical of wet western African rainforests. There was little grassy pollen, which suggested that it was not a narrow strip of forest but a dense forest land.

Ecological diversity is essentially a human species, Professor Scerri interprets.

“This reflects the complex history of the population’s neighborhoods, where different populations lived in different areas and in different living environments,” he says.

It is interesting how early people affected the plants and animals of their habitat.

“In other words, how far the past has shaped the unspoiled habitats of nature?” Scerri says.