Extended Data Fig. 7: Potential hominin overlap regions.

a) Shading indicates the relative occurrence frequency (relative to the entire 2-million-year simulation history) of when the habitat suitability for Homo sapiens and Homo heidelbergensis at a grid point both exceed 0.3 and exhibit a difference of less than 0.1. This constraint is considered here as a measure of habitat similarity during overlap times. Circles show the respective fossil and archaeological sites from the overlap periods. Cyan boxes highlight areas, for which there are mixed fossils available and high habitat similarity. These areas are potential areas for speciation events or gradual evolutionary transformations. b) same as a), but for Homo neanderthalensis and Homo heidelbergensis; c) same as a) but for Homo erectus and Homo heidelbergensis; d) same as a) but for Homo erectus and Homo ergaster/habilis; e) same as a) but for Homo ergaster/habilis and Homo heidelbergensis. The size of the circles scales with the age of the fossils.