This preprint develops the Hominin Corridor Model, a formal explanation for the observed asymmetry in hominin expansions across Afro–Eurasia over the past two million years. The model treats dispersal as the outcome of interacting ecological variables: metabolic efficiency, scavenging opportunity, tool-derived energy multipliers, fire access, and juvenile survival probability. By representing these variables as contributors to an aggregate ecological inheritance function, the model demonstrates how small advantages accumulate into large-scale spatial dominance. Mathematically, the model uses a corridor function C(x,t)C(x,t)C(x,t) to show that hominins with slightly higher ecological inheritance values penetrate environmental corridors faster, withstand population bottlenecks more effectively, and retain long-term presence even under climatic contraction. This produces a threshold effect, where populations just above the expansion threshold overtake spatial competitors even in the absence of major cognitive differences. The paper synthesizes fossil evidence, archaeological distributions, and energetics research to argue that the rise of Homo sapiens was an emergent property of compounding ecological inheritance rather than a sudden cognitive revolution. The framework is intended as a generalizable, predictive model of hominin spatial dynamics and provides a basis for future quantitative extensions.
Matthew Dominik (Tue,) studied this question.