But this new research calls that assumption into question. If early Homo sapiens were already manipulating ecosystems and altering the carbon cycle 50,000 years ago, then the baseline for “natural” climate and ecological conditions might be far more human-affected than we thought., This study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), highlights the presence of charred plant remains — known as pyrogenic carbon — formed when vegetation burns but is not completely consumed by fire. The research reveals a notable increase in fire activity across East Asia approximately 50,000 years ago., Researchers from the Institute of Oceanology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IOCAS), alongside collaborators from China, Germany, and France, analyzed the pyrogenic carbon record in a 300,000-year-old sediment core from the East China Sea. Their findings challenge the widely held belief that humans only began influencing environment with fire in the recent past, during the Holocene., (CN) — Researchers from the Institute of Oceanology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences have uncovered compelling evidence of a sharp increase in human-driven fires beginning approximately 50,000 years ago. The findings provide groundbreaking insights into the evolution of human behavior and its growing impact on our planet. The team analyzed pyrogenic carbon, fire-derived chemicals, found in , Combining fecal stanol molecular biomarkers with sedimentary charcoal and black carbon records, we clarify the distinctions between natural and human-induced fires, providing a deeper understanding of the impact of anthropogenic biomass burning on regional and global warming., .