Some 74,000 old age ago , a volcanic super - eruption 5,000 times large than Mount St. Helens spur a “ volcanic winter ” that endure up to a X , resulting in a millennia - long cooling event across the planet that wiped out former human mintage and mammals likewise .
Or so the hypothesis went .
Now , Modern evidence presented inNature Communicationssuggests that while the Toba Volcano irruption was one of the orotund events to go on over the last 2 million age , it may not have wiped out early mankind but instead proved the species to be adaptable and cunning in time of climate catastrophe .
Previous theory suggest that the volcanic eruption decimated early human population , virtually forcing the extinction of humans . Under this theory , the fewHomo sapiensthat make it in Africa during this clock time developed social , symbolic , and economical scheme that enabled them to re - enlarge to Asia 14,000 old age after the eruption . New employment contravene such theories , indicate that humans in India were resilient to the vent eruption – even though they finally perish off later and did not contribute to modern factor pools .
" The archaeological record demonstrates that although human being sometimes show a noteworthy level of resilience to challenges , it is also clear that people did not needfully always prosper over the tenacious terminus , ” said Professor Michael Petraglia , of the Max Planck Institute , in astatement .
Archaeologists at the Dhaba web site in central India dated 13 deposit sample distribution spanning an 80,000 year - long stratigraphic record from the Dhaba site in northerly India ’s Middle Son Valley , as well as find a robust collection of artifacts over a timeframe of 55,000 eld surrounding the volcanic volcanic eruption . Stone tools strike near the Toba eruption defend those from the African Middle Stone Age and some of the earliest artefact from Australia , which suggest potent evidence that Middle Paleolithic tool - using populations were present in India before and after the eruption , filling a “ major chronological gap ” in human phonograph record .
" population at Dhaba were using Oliver Stone tools that were similar to the toolkits being used byHomo sapiensin Africa at the same time . The fact that these toolkits did not evaporate at the time of the Toba super - eruption or alteration dramatically before long after indicates that human populations survived the so - called catastrophe and continued to create pecker to modify their environments , ” said atomic number 82 author Professor Chris Clarkson of the University of Queensland .
Sediment analyses also hint that the Earth ’s cooling result following the Toba irruption may have been less extreme than antecedently hypothesized and may not have actually caused the glacial period that followed . The work bear the hypothesis that human population were present in India 80,000 geezerhood ago and likely hold up one of the largest volcanic eruption in the last 2 million days .
India is a “ vital geographical crossword ” for realize how earlyHomo sapiensdispersed out of Africa , into Asia and beyond . Fossil grounds from the study suggests that humans transmigrate out of Africa and flourish across Eurasia and interbred with ancient humans , like Neanderthals , before the end of the cooling event 60,000 long time ago .
