Fossil occurrence and phylogenetic data
The human fossil database is available as Supplementary Data. This
dataset was further implemented by adding the occurrence of four hominin
species from scientific literature. Specifically, we added the fossil
occurrences belonging to Australopithecus anamensis, A. afarensis,
Paranthropus boisei, and P. robustus . We excluded other hominin
species because their stratigraphically or geographically restricted
fossil record prevent performing realistic inference about their
climatic niche limits.
For each fossil occurrence included in the dataset, we recorded latitude
and longitude, the archaeological layer yielding the remains, and the
absolute age of the dated sample. Where available, we also included
information about which sample was used for dating the relative lab
code. Radiocarbon dates were calibrated using Intcal13 calibration curve
for the Northern hemisphere, shcal13 curve for the Southern hemisphere,
and marine13 curve for marine samples. Age estimates come with
uncertainty. Time averaging of the archaeological layers adds to this
uncertainty. To account for this, for each archaeological site (or
layer) age estimate we retrieved from the collected estimates the
minimum age and the maximum age (calculated according to individual
estimates and their respective confidence intervals).