Human ancestors were slipping on shirts, slopping on sunscreen and seeking shade to protect themselves from the sun more than 40,000 years ago, habits which may have saved us from extinction.
New research from the University of Michigan shows ancient Homo sapiens, often called anatomically modern humans, may have benefited from covering their skin in ochre, tailoring clothes and using caves during the shifting of the magnetic North Pole over Europe about 41,000 years ago.
Study lead author Agnit Mukhopadhyay said these technologies could have protected Homo sapiens living in Europe from harmful solar radiation.
Assistant Professor Mukhopadhyay said Neanderthals, on the other hand, appeared to have lacked these technologies and disappeared around 40,000 years ago.
He said the team found that the North Pole wandered over Europe when the magnetic field’s poles started to flip positions, a natural process that has happened around 180 times over Earth’s geological history.
“While the magnetic reversal didn’t complete at the time, the magnetic field weakened to cause aurora to occur over most of the globe, and allowed more harmful UV light to come in from space.
“Around the same time, Homo sapiens appear to have started making tailored clothing and using ochre, a mineral that has sun-protective properties when applied to the skin, with greater frequency.”
Assistant Professor Mukhopadhyay said these behaviors could have contributed to their spread throughout Europe and Asia at a time when the Neanderthal population was declining.
“In the study, we combined all of the regions where the magnetic field would not have been connected, allowing cosmic radiation, or any kind of energetic particles from the sun, to seep all the way in to the ground.
“We found that many of those regions actually match pretty closely with early human activity from 41,000 years ago, specifically an increase in the use of caves and an increase in the use of prehistoric sunscreen.”
Read the full study: Wandering of the auroral oval 41,000 years ago.
