Ancient Resilience: How Homo Erectus Conquered Desert Life and Redefined Survival Skills

Our ancient human forerunners might have been more versatile than initially assumed: Recent studies indicate Homo erectus was capable of surviving—and even flourishing—after its habitat in East Africa turned into a dry, desolate region.

H. erectus is a now-extinct variant of early human that specialists believe emerged approximately two million years ago in Africa. With an upright posture, they possessed longer limbs and shorter arms compared to previous hominins, bestowing upon them a remarkably modern human-like figure. Their brain size was also larger than that of earlier species, though not as substantial as the brains of contemporary humans, Homo sapiens.

H. erectus thrived for over 1.5 million years before becoming extinct about 100,000 years ago. It was among the earliest human species to venture out of Africa, migrating to far-flung regions like China and Indonesia. In total, this species inhabited Earth far longer than modern humans, with H. sapiens emerging only around 300,000 years ago.

However, what enabled this species to endure for such an extended period and cover such an expansive geographical area? Scientists have been trying to unravel these mysteries for a long time.

Now, it appears that “ecological adaptability” might hold the key, based on a new paper published Thursday in the journal Communications Earth & Environment.

“Their success can be attributed to their capability to persist through an extensive timeframe characterized by numerous environmental and climatic changes,” states study lead author Julio Mercader, a paleoecologist at the University of Calgary in Canada, in a declaration.

A global team of researchers came to this conclusion after examining a site in northern Tanzania known as Engaji Nanyori. This location is abundant in H. erectus fossils, along with stone tools and fossilized pollen grains. The researchers meticulously studied these artifacts, alongside rocks, butchered animal remains, and additional types of archaeological data, to reconstruct the environmental conditions of the past.

This style of investigation requires “an enormous amount of labor,” as Elke Zeller, a climate scientist at the University of Arizona who was not involved in the study, explained to the New York Times’s Carl Zimmer.

Through this meticulous process, the study depicted Engaji Nanyori as a dry, semi-desert environment, lacking in water and vegetation. Nonetheless, the landscape had not always been so inhospitable—actually, it had previously functioned as an open woodland for hundreds of thousands of years, the team discovered. Approximately a million years ago, a significant climate transition occurred, transforming Engaji Nanyori from a relatively welcoming ecosystem into an extremely arid shrubland.

Remarkably, H. erectus managed to adapt to this altered environment. The early humans frequented water sources that arose following rainfall, hunting the animals that gathered to drink there. Over thousands of years, they consistently occupied the same locations near rivers and streams, strategically utilizing the resources made available.

H. erectus also refined their stone tools to make them sharper, likely for butchering purposes, according to the study, and started transporting tools when migrating to new areas. These innovations would have enabled them to effectively hunt and scavenge from carcasses whenever they were available.

“They may have implemented strategies like, ‘This is a valuable tool. I should take it with me and be ready if we come across food,’” remarks study co-author Paul Durkin, a geologist at the University of Manitoba in Canada, to the New York Times.

This adaptability could elucidate why H. erectus was capable of leaving Africa and successfully disseminating into various regions globally, according to the researchers.

The results provide fresh perspectives on the lifestyle and behaviors of one of our ancient ancestors, expanding on other recent findings that reported H. erectus occupied high altitudes in modern-day Ethiopia. More broadly, they also challenge the long-standing assumption that only H. sapiens—with its large, intricate brain—was equipped to thrive in extreme environments.

“Homo sapiens is frequently regarded as a species that can handle all ecological challenges presented to it—and indeed, it is remarkable what our species has managed to endure,” explains study co-author Michael Petraglia, director of the Australian Research Center for Human Evolution at Griffith University, to Haaretz’s Ruth Schuster. “However, this does not imply that earlier members of our genus lacked the capacity to inhabit challenging environments. Our paper clearly demonstrates this and establishes it at an early stage.”