Press release – Ecosystem dynamics and cultural innovation during the Middle Stone Age in southern Africa
Press release – Ecosystem dynamics and cultural innovation during the Middle Stone Age in southern Africa

A new study published in Communications Earth & Environment highlights the work of Maria Sanchez Goni and Sara Garcia-Morato on the first subcontinental-scale reconstruction of ecosystem dynamics 180 and 30 millennia before present.

©CNRS

This study provides a new basis for understanding how early Homo sapiens adapted, innovated and reorganised their societies in a world undergoing constant change due to environmental shifts.

 

Using pollen records preserved in marine sediments, Maria Fernanda Sanchez Goni and Sara García-Morato of the EPOC Laboratory show a consistent correlation between ecosystem dynamics and cultural evolution.

 

This study provides a new basis for understanding how early Homo sapiens adapted, innovated and reorganised their societies in a constantly changing world. Environmental changes acted as both constraints and opportunities, shaping the structure of ecosystems, influencing population connectivity and interacting in complex ways with demographic and social dynamics.

 

Find out more: https://www.insu.cnrs.fr/fr/cnrsinfo/dynamique-des-ecosystemes-et-innovation-culturelle-au-cours-de-lage-de-pierre-moyen-en

 

 

Informations EPOC – février 2026

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