(Aliraza Khatri/Moment/Getty Images)HUMANS

DEEPA PADMANABAN, SAPIENS9 NOVEMBER 2020

https://www.sciencealert.com/climate-change-may-have-helped-driven-ancient-human-species-to-extinction

Several close relatives of our species,Homo sapiens, have walked this Earth since the genusHomoevolved more than 2 million years ago. These hominins lived in diverse habitats and challenging environments. Some even crossed pathsand interbred.https://b64e5299283709cc7c35721f8aaf40c8.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-37/html/container.html

Though more than one may have reached significant technological and cognitive milestones, such ascontrolling fire,developing stone tools, orcreating clothes, today only we,H. sapiens, survive.

Scholars have much debated our current exclusivity. Some have proposed thatH. sapiens‘better technologicalabilities may have given us an advantage over the rest. Others have suggested we may have eaten amore varied dietor weremore efficient runnersthan other hominins.

Meanwhile, other researchers posit that, given high levels of interbreeding, perhaps some hominins did not go extinct as much asmerge completelywith…