Late Pleistocene climate change and the global expansion of anatomically modern humans

The extent to which past climate change has dictated the pattern

humans is currently unclear [Stewart JR, Stringer CB (2012) Science

makes it difficult to quantify the effect of climate. Here, we

the appearance of fossils or archaeological evidence to determine

genetic variation in modern human populations to determine the

explicit model of the expansion of anatomically modern humans

Hadley Centre global climate model HadCM3 to quantify the possible

of demographic parameters compatible with the current genetic

on past population densities. Our estimates of this effect,

between current climate and population density in modern hunter–

of our approach. Furthermore, although we did not use any

arrival times in different continents predicted by our model are

Our framework provides the most accurate spatiotemporal reconstruction

will allow for a greater integration of genetic and archaeological

evidence.