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).