Why Did So Many Other Hominins Vanish in Europe Around 1.1 Million Years Ago? — Here’s What Scholars Discovered

Europe was once home to many hominins, but something happened around 1.1 million years ago. Suddenly, fossils and archaeological records disappeared, and since that time, it has been believed that there have been no human species for nearly 200,000 years, or at least no established population was present.

Scientists predict that there was an extreme event that could have led to the mass extinction of the hominin population in Europe around that age. But why did this happen? What forced an intelligent and adaptable group of human species to all vanish so suddenly? Could it be that they just left Europe to migrate to other parts of the world, like Asia and Oceania? Let’s dive deeper into all these questions and look at our past.

A Sudden Extreme Cooling Event

One of the strongest theories was a dramatic shift in climate, where Europe became too cold for any hominins to survive in. Around 1.1 million years ago, evidence suggests that there was an extreme drop in temperature in the North Atlantic region. This phenomenon created a massive, prolonged cooling event that lasted for thousands of years.

The extreme cold made vegetation scarce, and food or water sources became limited. The animals that hominins may have preyed upon could have gone extinct, too, or moved to other habitats. So, in response, the hominins living in the area, which could be a certain type or ancestor of the Homo erectus species, had to adapt or go extinct.

The ones that survived were probably hominins that moved to follow where resources are abundant. However, most of them that stayed probably all failed to survive. This is one theory that could explain why the hominins vanished in Europe around 1.1 million years ago.

There are also researchers who argue that this event could have caused a total depopulation of the whole continent. Then it took thousands of years before another hominin species arrived and established a population, and this was believed to be the Homo antecessor.

Read more: Science.org

Environmental Stress and Habitat Collapse

Lost History: How a Climate Apocalypse Obliterated Europe's Early Humans

Climate change alone is already very powerful and could provide an explanation for why the hominins vanished in Europe around 1.1 million years ago. However, researchers find that the cooling event was not as sudden in human time, but it most likely occurred over thousands of years.

Without complete mastery or control of fire and adequate fit clothing, any hominins would find it difficult to survive in this environment. However, even if they do, the environmental stress that it would put on their habitats is massive. It could turn a woodland or open savanna into a freezing ground with no vegetation in sight. In other words, it could turn a livable habitat into an unlivable one.

Hominins likely had mixed diets, such as plants and meat. With the shift to a colder climate, the plant diet would already be scarce; however, their meat sources, which are often herbivorous species, would also die off or move to other habitats. These meant that hominins could face starvation or be forced out of their natural habitats to migrate and adapt to newer and less harsher places.

Population Crash, Genetic Bottlenecks, and Local Extinction

During these glacial periods, the climate became too cold, and the environmental stress on habitats made them uninhabitable in some areas. However, even then, some hominins could have still adapted and survived. But it is highly likely that their population has been reduced to a level where any more pressure could put them on the brink of extinction.

This is because isolated and small population groups face several challenges, which could include a genetic bottleneck. It refers to a state where the gene pool or diversity is too low for the population to be resilient. It makes them prone to inbreeding, genetic problems, and they are often vulnerable to being wiped out by natural disasters or biological diseases.

In other words, even if some small pockets of the hominin population survive in Europe, they may be too isolated and too small to be able to adapt and reestablish themselves on the continent. This would have driven those surviving groups into local extinction, if they had not already been rom the cold climate shift, and lack of livable habitats.

Read more: Smithsonian Magazine

Migration, Replacement, and Later Recolonization

Big freeze drove early humans out of Europe, scientists reveal - BBC News

After the massive cooling event, Europe was believed to have remained unpopulated for most parts for hundreds of thousands of years. Then, the habitable areas could have increased, and some vegetation and animals returned or reestablished themselves. Soon, around 900,000 years ago, a new human species from outside the continent arrived. These hominins could have been more adaptable, with advanced technological innovations, better diets, and possibly more accustomed to the cold.

This species was thought to be Homo antecessor. The archeological sites of these hominins showed signs of animal bones being processed. It is a clue that they use a basic stone tool to cut and scrape off the meat, to eat more food, and possibly obtain the marrow inside.

The analysis of microwear on their teeth also showed that they have a mixed diet of tougher materials like raw meat, tubers, and other edible plant parts. In other words, these new hominins could be better adapted to the changed conditions of Europe. They were believed to be a hominin species that was able to establish itself on the continent.

Author's Final Thoughts

Around 1.1 million years ago, hominin populations in Europe vanished. It wasn’t until around 900,000 years ago that a new human species arrived and was able to survive in the changed environmental conditions of the continent. This meant that the hominin population in Europe could have migrated out, or they simply went extinct, but the hominin population around the world still persisted.

This pattern of a massive event influencing the extinction of the hominin species in a particular habitat, followed by vast emptiness, until recolonization occurs, shows us how harsh planet Earth could be, but it also reminds us just how resilient and adaptive our human lineage is.

Read next: How Did Homo naledi Survive in Africa Around 250,000 Years Ago Despite Their Small Brains, and Why Did They Eventually Go Extinct? — Here’s What Researchers Found Out

References & Further Reading

Margari, V., et al. (2023). Extreme glacial cooling likely led to hominin depopulation of Europe in the Early Pleistocene. Science. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adf4445

Head, M. J., & Gibbard, P. L. (2015). Early–Middle Pleistocene transitions: Linking terrestrial, marine and glacial records. Quaternary International. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1040618215009106

Duval, M., et al. (2018). The first direct ESR dating of a hominin tooth from Atapuerca Gran Dolina TD-6 (Spain) supports the antiquity of Homo antecessor. Quaternary Geochronology. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quageo.2018.05.001

Blain, H.-A., et al. (2010). Sima del Elefante, Atapuerca (Spain): First hominin presence around 1.2 Ma and its palaeoenvironmental context. Quaternary Science Reviews. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S027737911000257X

Dennell, R. W., et al. (2011). Hominin variability, climatic instability and population demography in Europe over the Early to Middle Pleistocene transition. Quaternary Science Reviews. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0277379109004004

McClymont, E. L., et al. (2013). Pleistocene sea-surface temperature evolution: mid-Pleistocene transition mechanisms and impacts. Earth-Science Reviews. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0012825213000809