A frigid apocalypse doomed early humans in Europe

[Grim Reaper 6]

Long before our species Homo sapiens trekked out of Africa, earlier human species also spread to other parts of the world. That dispersal, however, sometimes encountered grave hardships. Scientists on Thursday described evidence of a massive North Atlantic cooling event about 1.1 million years ago that lasted roughly 4,000 years and appears to have wiped out the entire population of archaic humans who had colonized Europe.

The frigid interval - comparable in intensity to the more recent ice ages - appears to have rendered Europe inhospitable for the bands of early human hunter-gatherers, as extreme glaciation deprived them of food resources. Their cold tolerance may have been lacking, without sufficient fat insulation, while fashioning effective clothing and shelter and finding the means to make fire would have been challenging, the researchers said. 

A frigid apocalypse doomed early humans in Europe (msn.com)