Jose Joordens: "Coastal hominins? Towards an Indian Ocean basin perspective"

Talk link: https://youtu.be/WPquyky6Vh4

Talk abstract: Ever since the Late Miocene, the eastern African coastal forest zone may have been a core area for hominin evolution. During highly variable and strongly seasonal climate periods, hominins could take refuge along the balmy coast, while during stable periods they could disperse to inland basins via vegetated corridors. Based on Jonathan Kingdon’s seminal work, I proposed that this climate-driven movement of hominin populations perpendicular to the eastern seaboard was like a pump for speciation at least until 2.8 million years ago. But what happened afterwards? In this talk I will remain at the coast and take an Indian Ocean basin perspective to discuss the potential niches and dispersal pathways of coastal hominins during glacials and interglacials of the Early Pleistocene, and their ultimate expansion beyond Africa.