Long before our species Homo sapiens trekked out of Africa, earlier human species also spread to other parts of the world. That dispersal, however, sometimes encountered grave hardships.
Scientists on Thursday described evidence of a massive North Atlantic cooling event about 1.1 million years ago that lasted roughly 4,000 years and appears to have wiped out the entire population of archaic humans who had colonized Europe.
Based on fossils from Spain, that species is believed to have been Homo erectus, generally considered the first member of the human evolutionary lineage to have expanded beyond Africa. The species was the first possessing body proportions like ours and made innovations in stone tools.
