SCIENCE

Humans inhabited the African rainforests 150,000 years ago

by admin on | 2025-03-02 08:42:28 Last Updated by admin on2025-04-19 21:17:53

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A study led by the Max Planck Institute for Geoanthropology, with the participation of CENIEH, reveals that Homo sapiens lived in the dense, humid forests of Africa much earlier than previously thought. The research pushes back the oldest known evidence of human presence in these environments.

New sediment analyses carried out at the Bété I site in the Ivory Coast indicate that Homo sapiens inhabited tropical forests in West Africa at least 150,000 years ago.

Until now, the oldest confirmed evidence of human presence in these environments dates back 18,000 years, while in Southeast Asia it had been documented 70,000 years ago.

The research involved the participation of scientists from the National Centre for Research on Human Evolution (CENIEH) in Burgos, responsible for the Electron Spin Resonance (ESR) dating analyses.

The research, whose results have been published this week in the journal Nature, has been key to determining the age of the remains and confirming that the environment was a dense and humid forest, not a strip of sporadic vegetation.

Source: https://www.agenciasinc.es/Noticias/Los-humanos-habitaron-las-selvas-tropicales-africanas-hace-150.000-anos