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The fossil record of fire first appears with the establishment of a land-based flora in the Middle Ordovician period, 1] permitting the accumulation of oxygen in the atmosphere as never before, as the new hordes of land plants pumped it out as a waste product.
The fossil record of fire first appears with the establishment of a land-based flora in the Middle Ordovician period, 9] permitting the accumulation of oxygen in the atmosphere as never before, as the new hordes of land plants pumped it out as a waste product.
Tree core sample collected with an increment boarer A cat-face fire scar on a ponderosa pine A cross section of a ponderosa pine fire scar showing several dated fire events The growth record of a tree in seasonal climates is preserved in the growth rings in the stem wood; the field of dendrochronology is the study of the record of climate and ...
Fire becomes markedly more abundant in the wider archaeological record after 400,000–300,000 years ago, which can be explained as some advancement in fire management techniques took place at this time [124] or human ancestors only opportunistically used fire until this time.
In Africa, on the other hand, humans may have been able to frequently scavenge fire as early as 1.6 million years ago from natural wildfires, which occur much more often in Africa, thus possibly (more or less) regularly using fire. The oldest established continuous fire site beyond Africa is the 780,000-year-old Gesher Benot Ya'aqov, Israel. [57]
The discovery of a newly identified species — the oldest saber-toothed animal found and an ancient cousin to mammals — fills a longstanding gap in the fossil record.
Another significant fossil was a fossil mandible recovered at Ileret and described by Leakey with the designation KNM ER 992 in 1972 as "Homo of indeterminate species". [8] In 1975, palaeoanthropologists Colin Groves and Vratislav Mazák designated KNM ER 992 as the holotype specimen of a distinct species, which they dubbed Homo ergaster. [9]
The control of fire by early humans was a critical technology enabling the evolution of humans. Fire provided a source of warmth and lighting , protection from predators (especially at night), a way to create more advanced hunting tools, and a method for cooking food.