Ancient humans favored diverse and mosaic landscapes, study shows.
A new study published in the journal Science finds that early human species adapted to mosaic landscapes and diverse food resources, which would have increased our ancestor's resilience to past shifts in climate. The scientists used a compilation of more than three thousand well-dated human fossil specimens and archaeological sites, representing six different human species, in combination with realistic climate and vegetation model simulations, covering the past 3 million years. The results indicate that ecosystem diversity played a key role in human evolution.