Hominins’ Hurried Departure from Africa during the Out of Africa Event-1 due to Widespread Wildfires, Accidently and Inevitably Ignited by them, C.A. 1.8 – 1.6 Mya

An established hypothesis explaining “The Out of Africa Event1” says that either a paleo-periglacial climate or a past increase in arid conditions was most probably the reason for H. erectus’ migration out of Africa and into Eurasia, 1.8 – 1.6 mya, but a study is offered here which blames frequent, lightning-strikes and accidental misusage of fire by hominins as the agents that led to uncontrolled, widespread wildfires. Paleo-winds advanced the wildfires according to wind direction, thus intensifying the widespread continental threat. A Pleistocene, temporary, land bridge, enabled some hominins to escape the threat of widespread wildfires by allowing them to cross over from east Africa to Eurasia. One anomaly noted is that either the wildfires or some vast impediment prevented equatorial H. erectus in Africa from climbing latitudinal lines up to north Africa at that time, but that delay to the mid-latitudes may have ended coincidently with Eurasian travel on the eastern coastline of the juxtaposed Red Sea. The NW-SE oriented sea would have acted as a natural fire-retardant allowing hominins to finally move up to the mid-latitudes. The northbound migration would have also forced tropically-derived hominins to quickly adapt to low temperatures and environmental change while insight is offered here concerning how they may have successfully tackled their newest challenges.

Keywords: accidental misusage of fire; escape from wildfires; adaptation of H. erectus emigrants; directional paleo-winds influencing widfires.