A study carried out by Luigi Maiorano of the Department of Biology and Biotechnology "Charles Darwin", together with a team of international researchers from British and Brazilian universities and published in the journal One Earth, shed light on the possible climate-related dynamics that led to the extinction of human species prior to Homo Sapiens

Despite the level of technology achieved and the extreme adaptability, at least six different species of the genus Homo have suddenly disappeared from Earth. Scholars have always wondered why this happened, trying to understand if and how much the hand of modern Homo Sapiens is responsible for the extinction of our closest relatives, such as Neanderthals or Homo Erectus.

The researchers, by using a rich record of archaeological remains and paleoclimatic data, discovered that these primitive ancestors did not succumb to the rampant expansion of Homo Sapiens, as most commonly thought, but, in fact, to the intense climate change to which they were exposed.

In particular, the results of the study confirm the crucial role of the environmental changes that occurred during the ice ages, to which the fossil species were unable to react well enough and so quickly as to save themselves. No human species ever appears to have been particularly sensitive to climate change, except for extinct species, and only just before they disappeared forever.

The study stimulates a reflection: the exploitation of our Planet by its current inhabitants may lead to irreparable consequences on the climate; could our species, that is the cause of this damage, be the next Homo species to succumb to climate change?