The next phase in human evolution takes place in Europe where hominins adapt to deal with cold conditions and the recurring glaciations of the Ice Age. This is the light green area in our map of Erectus migration [ Map ].
Traditionally access by crossing to Gibraltar being protected by the Sahara. The earliest evidence of Erectus presence in Europe is a milk tooth dated 1.4 Mya found in southern Spain (Guadix). Evidence of more permanent migration would be 6 skeletons found in northern Spain (Atapuerca) and dated 1.2 - 0.8 Mya. Click HERE for maps showing dates and locations for the latest discoveries.
At some point,
The cultural developments of Homo erectus essentially began a new phase of our evolution--one in which natural selection was altered by cultural inventions. This has been referred to as biocultural evolution.
Culture can affect the direction of human evolution by creating non-biological solutions to environmental challenges. This potentially reduces the need to evolve genetic responses to the challenges. Normally, when animals move into new environmental zones, natural selection, operating on random mutations, causes evolution. In other words, the population's gene pool is altered as a result of adapting to a new environment. When late Homo erectus moved into temperate environments, nature should have selected for biological adaptations that were more suited to cooler climates. Such things as increased amounts of insulating body fat and insulating hair covering most of the body would be expected. Homo erectus evidently achieved much of the same adaptation by occupying caves, using fires, and becoming more capable at obtaining meat. By using their intelligence and accumulated knowledge, they remained essentially tropical animals despite the fact that they were no longer living only in the tropics. However, natural selection continued to select for increased brain size and presumably intelligence. This pattern of culture altering natural selection accelerated dramatically with the evolution of modern humans. Today, most of us live in cities and towns that are essentially unnatural environments and the rate of culture change has accelerated dramatically. We have occupied most environmental zones on land, and yet we are still essentially tropical animals physically. As a result, we perish rapidly if our cultural technology is taken away from us in environments in which the temperature drops to freezing.
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Colonisation of Europe in prehistory was not achieved in one immigrating wave, but instead through multiple dispersal events.[2]
Before the start of the Ice Age, 3 Mya, Europe had a subtropical climate and was intermittently connected to Africa by land bridges [Wikipedia ]. From 13 million to 9 million years ago, tropical animals including great apes flourished in Europe; however, all were extinct by 7 million years ago.
the first constant presence of humans in Europe begins 500,000–600,000 years ago.[3] However, this presence was limited to western Europe, not reaching places like the Russian plains, until 200,000–300,000 years ago.[3] The exception to this was discovered in East Anglia, England, where hominids briefly inhabited 700,000 years ago.[4] Prior to arriving in Europe, the source of hominids appeared to be East Africa, where stone tools and hominid fossils are the most abundant and recorded.[3] Arising in Europe at least 400,000 years ago, the Neanderthals would become more stable residents of the continent, until they were displaced by a more recent migration of African hominids, in their new home are referred to as European early modern humans (historically called Cro-Magnon Man), leading to the extinction of Neanderthals about 40,000 years ago.