News Anthropology How ancient, recurring climate changes may have shaped human evolution Shifting habitats implicate a disputed ancestor in the rise of Homo sapiens and Neandertals The climate change–induced travels of a disputed hominid species called Homo heidelbergensis, represented here by a roughly 600,000-year-old East African skull, led to the evolution of H. sapiens in southern Africa and Neandertals in Europe, a new study claims. Ryan Somma/Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0) Share this:EmailFacebookTwitterPinterestPocketRedditPrint By Bruce Bower April 13, 2022 at 11:00 am Recurring climate changes may have orchestrated where Homo species lived over the last 2 million years and how humankind evolved.