Homo erectus, not sapiens, first humans to survive desert: study Our ancestor Homo erectus was able to survive punishingly hot and dry desert more than a million years ago, according to a new study ...

But even small changes in temperature or precipitation could drastically impact plants and animals living in the desert ... cover a quarter of Earth. Human activities such as firewood gathering ...

The Sahara Desert has grown by nearly 10 percent since 1920. This shows a pressing environmental issue affecting the area. It now covers about 3.6 million square miles (9.4 million square ...