When Culture Broke Free from Climate

An article by F. d'Errico, I. Colagè and L. Courtenay published in Evolutionary Human Sciences

How climate shaped human learning – until culture took over

Did Ice Ages shape the way humans learned?

For decades, archaeologists and evolutionary scientists have viewed climate as one of the principal drivers of human evolution. Ice ages altered landscapes, reshaped ecosystems, and influenced where our ancestors lived, the resources they exploited, and the routes they followed as they dispersed across continents. Climate has also been invoked to explain major evolutionary events, from the emergence of our species to the disappearance of Neanderthals. But climate can influence evolution in another, less obvious way.

 

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Reference

d’Errico, F., Colagè, I., Courtenay, L., 2026. The impact of climate change on the evolution of cultural transmission strategies in the human lineage. Evol. Hum. Sci. 1–29. https://doi.org/10.1017/ehs.2026.10068

Corresponding authors

Francesco d’Errico: francesco.derrico@u-bordeaux.fr

Ivan Colagè: i.colage@pusc