A team of international researchers has uncovered evidence that humans lived in rainforests approximately 150,000 years ago, significantly pushing back the current understanding of human habitation in these biomes. The discovery was made at an archaeological site in West Africa, known as “Bété I,” where stone tools were found to be dated around 150,000 years old.
Prior to this study, the oldest secure evidence for human habitation in African rainforests was estimated to be around 18,000 years ago. However, the new findings reveal that humans may have occupied these regions much earlier than previously thought. The researchers used state-of-the-art methods, including analysis of quartz grains and pollen samples, to determine that the site was inhabited by humans during a period of heavy rainfall.
The discovery has significant implications for our understanding of human evolution and how early humans adapted to different environments. According to lead author Eslem Ben Arous, “Convergent evolution shows beyond doubt that ecological diversity sits at the heart of our species. This reflects a complex history of population subdivision, in which different populations lived in different regions and habitat types.”
The researchers believe that living in rainforests would have presented unique challenges for early humans, including limited access to resources and potential encounters with predators. However, this could also have led to adaptations that helped the human species thrive in these environments.
The study’s findings open up new avenues of research into how early human niche expansions impacted the plants and animals that shared the same ecosystem with humans. As archaeologist Eleanor Scerri noted, “We now need to ask how these early human niche expansions impacted the plants and animals that shared the same niche-space with humans.”
Source: https://www.newsweek.com/human-evolution-rainforests-archaeology-west-africa-ivory-coast-2036488