A frigid apocalypse doomed early humans in Europe

FILE PHOTO: Scientist David Lordkipanidze of the Georgian Academy of Sciences shows the skull - about about 1.8 million years old - of the early human species Homo erectus excavated near the town of Dmanisi, some 85 kms (53 miles) southwest of Tbilisi, July 8, 2002. REUTERS/David Mdzinarishvili REUTERS/File Photo

(Reuters) - Long before our species Homo sapiens trekked out of Africa, earlier human species also spread to other parts of the world. That dispersal, however, sometimes encountered grave hardships.

Scientists on Thursday described evidence of a massive North Atlantic cooling event about 1.1 million years ago that lasted roughly 4,000 years and appears to have wiped out the entire population of archaic humans who had colonized Europe.