Out of Africa thanks to climate change: Humans arrived in Europe up to 30,000 years earlier than believed

Modern humans first left Africa 100,000 years ago in a series of slow-paced migration waves and arrived in southern Europe around 80,000-90,000 years ago, far earlier than previously believed, according to a new study. The research suggests that humans spread out across the globe in four migration events driven by climate change, connected to variations in the Earth's orbit. The results challenge traditional models that suggest there was a single exodus out of Africa around 60,000 years ago. Chris Stringer, Research Leader in Human Origins at the Natural History Museum London told MailOnline the research is'the most comprehensive climate, vegetation and human-dispersal modelling study published so far'. 'While the earliest [migration] wave had only limited further penetration across the rest of Eurasia, they [the researchers] argue that modern humans could have arrived in small numbers in China and southern Europe by about 80,000 years,' he explained.