The recent drying of the Sahara can no longer be used as an example of abrupt climatic and ecological change. In effect, the aridification of the Sahara was the result of a complex and progressive evolution that took place between 5,600 and 2,700 years in relation with the weakening of the rains and Atlantic monsoons.
This is what an international team associated with the Climate and Environmental Sciences Laboratory (INSU-CNRS/CEA/Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin) and the International Institute for Paleo-primatology, Human Paleontology, Evolution, and Paleo-environments (CNRS, Université de Poitiers). Their findings are published in the journal Science.
To learn more, consult the CEA press release (in French).
