Fig. 1: Hominin species habitat suitability.
From: Climate effects on archaic human habitats and species successions
a–e, African–Eurasian species distribution calculated from a Mahalanobis distance model using four-dimensional climate envelope data of topographically downscaled temperature, precipitation and NPP changes simulated by 2Ma (Methods) and the locations and ages of fossil and archaeological sites (Supplementary Table 1). The time-averaged habitat suitability (blue to white shading) covering the period of respective hominin presence can be interpreted in terms of probability (Methods), with values ranging from 0 (habitat unsuitable) to 1 (habitat extremely suitable). Coloured circles represent the locations of fossils and/or archaeological artefacts associated with the five hominin groups. f–i, Time series for precession (blue) and eccentricity (f) and simulated regional habitat suitability at selected sites of archaeological interest for H. habilis and H. ergaster (treated jointly as early African Homo), H. heidelbergensis and H. sapiens (g–i). The centre locations of a 4° × 4° average area include Jebel Irhoud (34° N, 4° W), a region near Lake Turkana (0° N, 34° E) and Blombos cave (34° S, 21° E).
