Query: Humans survived past climate changes

Relevant passages:
Paleolithic <=SEP=> The Paleolithic -LSB- ˌpæliːəˈlɪθᵻk -RSB- age is a prehistoric period of human history distinguished by the development of the most primitive stone tools and covers roughly 95 % of human technological prehistory . It extends from the earliest known use of stone tools , probably by Homo habilis initially , 2.6 million years ago , to the end of the Pleistocene around 10,000 BP .   The Paleolithic era is followed by the Mesolithic . The date of the Paleolithic -- Mesolithic boundary may vary by locality as much as several thousand years .   During the Paleolithic period , humans grouped together in small societies such as bands , and subsisted by gathering plants and fishing , hunting or scavenging wild animals . The Paleolithic is characterized by the use of knapped stone tools , although at the time humans also used wood and bone tools . Other organic commodities were adapted for use as tools , including leather and vegetable fibers ; however , due to their nature , these have not been preserved to any great degree . Surviving artifacts of the Paleolithic era are known as paleoliths .   About 50,000 years ago , there was a marked increase in the diversity of artifacts . For the first time in Africa , bone artifacts and the first art appear in the archaeological record . The first evidence of human fishing is also noted , from artifacts in places such as Blombos cave in South Africa . Firstly among the artifacts of Africa , archaeologists found they could differentiate and classify those of less than 50,000 years into many different categories , such as projectile points , engraving tools , knife blades , and drilling and piercing tools . The new technology generated a population explosion of modern humans which is believed to have led to the extinction of the Neanderthals .   Humankind gradually evolved from early members of the genus Homo -- such as Homo habilis , who used simple stone tools -- into fully behaviorally and anatomically modern humans ( Homo sapiens sapiens ) during the Paleolithic era . During the end of the Paleolithic , specifically the Middle and or Upper Paleolithic , humans began to produce the earliest works of art and engage in religious and spiritual behavior such as burial and ritual . The climate during the Paleolithic consisted of a set of glacial and interglacial periods in which the climate periodically fluctuated between warm and cool temperatures . Archaeological and genetic data suggest that the source populations of Paleolithic humans survived in sparsely wooded areas and dispersed through areas of high primary productivity while avoiding dense forest cover .   By BP , the first humans set foot in Australia . By BP , humans lived at 61 ° N latitude in Europe . By BP , Japan was reached , and by BP humans were present in Siberia , above the Arctic Circle . At the end of the Upper Paleolithic , a group of humans crossed Beringia and quickly expanded throughout the Americas .   The term `` Paleolithic '' was coined by archaeologist John Lubbock in 1865 . It derives from Greek : παλαιός , palaios , `` old '' ; and λίθος , lithos , `` stone '' , meaning `` old age of the stone '' or `` Old Stone Age '' .

Holocene extinction <=SEP=> The Holocene extinction , otherwise referred to as the Sixth extinction or Anthropocene extinction , is the ongoing extinction event of species during the present Holocene epoch , mainly due to human activity . The large number of extinctions spans numerous families of plants and animals , including mammals , birds , amphibians , reptiles and arthropods . With widespread degradation of highly biodiverse habitats such as coral reefs and rainforest , as well as other areas , the vast majority of these extinctions is thought to be undocumented . According to the species-area theory , and based on upper-bound estimating , the present rate of extinction may be up to 140,000 species per year , making it the greatest loss of biodiversity since the Cretaceous -- Paleogene extinction event .   The Holocene extinction includes the disappearance of large land animals known as megafauna , starting at the end of the last Ice Age . Megafauna outside of the African continent , which did not evolve alongside humans , proved highly sensitive to the introduction of new predation , and many died out shortly after early humans began spreading and hunting across the Earth ( additionally , many African species have also gone extinct in the Holocene ) . These extinctions , occurring near the Pleistocene -- Holocene boundary , are sometimes referred to as the Quaternary extinction event .   The arrival of humans on different continents coincides with megafaunal extinction . The most popular theory is that human overhunting of species added to existing stress conditions . Although there is debate regarding how much human predation affected their decline , certain population declines have been directly correlated with human activity , such as the extinction events of New Zealand and Hawaii . Aside from humans , climate change may have been a driving factor in the megafaunal extinctions , especially at the end of the Quaternary .   The ecology of humanity has been noted as being that of an unprecedented `` global superpredator '' that regularly preys on the adults of other apex predators and has worldwide effects on food webs . Extinctions of species have occurred on every land mass and ocean , with many famous examples within Africa , Asia , Europe , Australia , North and South America , and on smaller islands . Overall , the Holocene extinction can be characterized by the human impact on the environment . The Holocene extinction continues into the 21st century , with meat consumption , overfishing , ocean acidification and the amphibian crisis being a few broader examples of an almost universal , cosmopolitan decline in biodiversity . A ballooning human population along with profligate consumption are considered to be the primary drivers of this rapid decline .

Quaternary extinction event <=SEP=> The Quaternary period saw the extinctions of numerous predominantly larger , especially megafaunal , species , many of which occurred during the transition from the Pleistocene to the Holocene epoch . However , this extinction wave did not stop at the end of the Pleistocene , but continued , especially on isolated islands , in human-caused extinctions , although there is debate as to whether these should be considered separate events or part of the same event . Among the main causes hypothesized by paleontologists are natural climate change and overkill by humans , who appeared during the Middle Pleistocene and migrated to many regions of the world during the Late Pleistocene and Holocene . A variant of the latter possibility is the second-order predation hypothesis , which focuses more on the indirect damage caused by overcompetition with nonhuman predators . The spread of disease is also discussed as a possible reason .

Little Ice Age <=SEP=> The Little Ice Age ( LIA ) was a period of cooling that occurred after the Medieval Warm Period . Although it was not a true ice age , the term was introduced into scientific literature by François E. Matthes in 1939 . It has been conventionally defined as a period extending from the 16th to the 19th centuries , but some experts prefer an alternative timespan from about 1300 to about 1850 . Climatologists and historians working with local records no longer expect to agree on either the start or end dates of the period , which varied according to local conditions .   The NASA Earth Observatory notes three particularly cold intervals : one beginning about 1650 , another about 1770 , and the last in 1850 , all separated by intervals of slight warming . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Third Assessment Report considered the timing and areas affected by the Little Ice Age suggested largely-independent regional climate changes rather than a globally-synchronous increased glaciation . At most , there was modest cooling of the Northern Hemisphere during the period .   Several causes have been proposed : cyclical lows in solar radiation , heightened volcanic activity , changes in the ocean circulation , variations in Earth 's orbit and axial tilt ( orbital forcing ) , inherent variability in global climate , and decreases in the human population .