The relationship between climate and human evolution is complex, and the causal mechanisms remain unknown. Here, we review and synthesize what is currently known about climate forcings on African landscapes, focusing mainly on the last 4 million years. We use information derived from marine sediment archives and data-numerical climate model comparisons and integration. There exists a heterogeneity in pan-African hydroclimate changes, forced by a combination of orbitally paced, low-latitude fluctuations in insolation; polar ice volume changes; tropical sea surface temperature gradients; the Walker circulation; and possibly greenhouse gases. Pan-African vegetation changes do not follow the same pattern, which is suggestive of additional influences, such as CO2 and temperature. We caution against reliance on temporal correlations between global or regional climate, environmental changes, and human evolution and briefly proffer some ideas on how pan-African climate trends could help create novel conceptual frameworks to determine the causal mechanisms of associations between climate/habitat change and hominin evolution.

中文翻译：

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气候与人类进化：来自海洋记录的见解


气候与人类进化之间的关系很复杂，其因果机制仍然未知。在这里，我们回顾和综合了目前已知的关于非洲景观气候强迫的信息，主要关注过去 400 万年。我们使用来自海洋沉积物档案和数据数值气候模型比较和整合的信息。泛非水文气候变化存在异质性，这是由轨道节奏、低纬度日照波动共同造成的;极地冰体积变化;热带海面温度梯度;沃克环流;可能还有温室气体。泛非植被变化不遵循相同的模式，这表明存在其他影响，例如 CO2 和温度。我们告诫不要依赖全球或区域气候、环境变化和人类进化之间的时间相关性，并简要提出了一些关于泛非气候趋势如何帮助创建新的概念框架来确定气候/栖息地变化与古人类进化之间关联的因果机制的想法。