The landing page for the paper Microbial biomarkers reveal a hydrothermally active landscape at Olduvai Gorge at the dawn of the Acheulean, 1.7 Ma [1] states:

The landing page for the paper Microbial biomarkers reveal a hydrothermally active landscape at Olduvai Gorge at the dawn of the Acheulean, 1.7 Ma [1] states: > The geothermal activity described here may have influenced the use of the space at Olduvai Gorge and may have provided advantages, such as cooking, which has not been previously contemplated in the context of human evolution. The discovered hydrothermal feature overlaps with the timelines of H. erectus. Richard Wrangham’s book Catching Fire [2] argues that the evidence for the consumption of energy dense food processed by fire is found in the physiology (small teeth, small gut, large brain) and reach (Eurasia) of erectus. The speculation about hot spring cooking distracts from the significance of the find, in my opinion. [1] https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2020/09/14/2004532117 https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2020/09/14/2004532117 [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catching_Fire:_How_Cooking_Made_Us_Human https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catching_Fire:_How_Cooking_Mad...