Major expansion in the human niche preceded out of Africa dispersal.

ABSTRACT: All contemporary Eurasians trace most of their ancestry to a small population that dispersed out of Africa about 50,000 years ago (ka)^1-9. By contrast, fossil evidence attests to earlier migrations out of Africa^10-15. These lines of evidence can only be reconciled if early dispersals made little to no genetic contribution to the later, major wave. A key question therefore concerns what factors facilitated the successful later dispersal that led to long-term settlement beyond Africa. Here we show that a notable expansion in human niche breadth within Africa precedes this later dispersal. We assembled a pan-African database of chronometrically dated archaeological sites and used species distribution models (SDMs) to quantify changes in the bioclimatic niche over the pas

SUBMITTER: Hallett EY 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12328235 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature