Buried Saharan Rivers May Have Led Humans Out of Africa

[n2doc]

Some 100,000 years ago, three large rivers snaked through what is today the bone-dry Sahara Desert, new research suggests.

The rivers, now buried, would have created pockets of green areas and provided water in a parched landscape. That, in turn, could have allowed ancient humans to migrate from across the Sahara and then out of Africa, according to research detailed today (Sept. 11) in the journal PLOS ONE.

"These rivers were big," said study co-author Thomas Coulthard, a hydrologist at the University of Hull in England. "They were about the same as the Missouri or the Rhine or even the Nile when it's low flow."

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http://www.livescience.com/39575-ancient-saharan-rivers-existed.html

[Laelth]

1. Cool. k&r for exposure. n/t

-Laelth

[niyad]

2. k and r--thanks for posting

[Vashta Nerada]

3. Maybe people left the deserts of Africa because they were tired of living in a desert?

Just a thought.

Awesome article, though.