Study Links Human Evolution to Environmental Record

TUSCON, ARIZONA—According to a UPI report, scientists led by Richard Owen of Hong Kong Baptist University examined sediment cores taken from Lake Magadi in East Africa’s Rift Valley, and found that climate change, and periods of drought in particular, may have driven hominin evolution. The study links the beginning of a trend toward “intense aridification” some 575,000 years ago, as reflected in the sediment cores, with the development of more sophisticated and wide-rangi