How did we humans acquire the skills, technology and talent to thrive in every environment on earth?

Humans acquired these skills thanks to their increased cognitive abilities.

Explanation:

Evolution provided humans (Homo Sapiens), and other hominids like the Neanderthals and the Homo Erectus, with larger brains, in exchange for weaker bodies. This gave hominids a physical disadvantage, but also a massive cognitive advantage.

With time, hominids acquired the necessary skills to learn how to use fire and fabricate stone tools, making survival more likely because now these species could hunt, gather, and cook more easily.

Homo Sapiens, the only extant hominid species, went through a cognitive revolution around 10,000 to 70,000 years ago, in which social cooperation and language was developed even more. Homo Sapiens drove other hominids to exctintion, and began to occupy all the continents. By 12,000 BCE, the southern tip of South America had been settled.

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