Wildfires Changed Human Evolution - Is It Happening Again?

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  I just want to give you the space to process it, Michael said.

• 00:04

  Elena paused.

• 00:05

  I don't think I want to see anybody else.

• 00:07

  This is the love story of real hinge couple Elena and Michael, written and read by me, Raven Smith.

• 00:13

  Listen to the free audiobook now.

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  A reconstruction of the environment in East Africa 1.75 million years ago,

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  that's during a key period when human ancestors were emerging.

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  A reconstruction suggests that wildfires then may have shaped human evolution.

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  So the suggestion is that the fluctuations in the environment

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  then drove these early humans to evolve greater flexibility.

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  To use tools or to develop tools and to control fire even,

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  and that helped them cope with this fluctuating, ever-changing world.

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  And it does immediately make us think of, well, that's what's happening in today's ever-changing world.

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  How will that impact us now?

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  So that's what we're getting into in this episode of The World, the Universe and Us.

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  I'm Dr. Penny Sarchet.

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  And I'm Dr. Owen Hooper.

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  Yeah, we've got two subjects colliding today, a climate subject and a human evolution subject.

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  We're joined by reporter Michael LePage and news editor Sam Wong.

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  And Sam, you've reported before on this period of prehistory,

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