Toffolo Lab

Research focus

ERC Starting Grant · 2021

PalaeoEcology and OPen-LandscapE adaptations of Pleistocene humans in South Africa

Homo sapiens emerged in Africa in the Middle Pleistocene, and their appearance broadly overlaps with the onset of the Middle Stone Age (MSA). This period saw a persistent population expansion into a wide range of ecosystems, including deserts, rainforests and mountains. To develop such ecological flexibility, early humans had to adapt their subsistence strategies to markedly different and dynamic environments that dramatically affected their lifeways. However, we know surprisingly little about the timing and modes of H. sapiens dispersal within Africa. To address this issue at subcontinental scale, PEOPLE will look at South African ecosystems that offer ways of assessing human response to…

From the public funding record at EU CORDIS. Describes the funded project, not the reviews below.