Final answer:
Low sea levels during the Late Pleistocene exposed land bridges in maritime Southeast Asia and the Beringia land bridge between Asia and North America, enabling human migrations to Australia and the Americas.
Step-by-step explanation:
Migration of Early Modern Humans Due to Low Sea Levels
During the Late Pleistocene, significant climate changes vastly impacted the Earth and its inhabitants. The onset of an ice age caused global temperatures to drop, leading to the formation of extensive glaciers that trapped water and consequently lowered sea levels. This geological transformation exposed land bridges previously submerged under the sea, creating accessible routes for human and animal migrations to previously isolated continents.
Specifically, early modern humans (Homo sapiens) took advantage of these lower sea levels to migrate across what is now maritime Southeast Asia and into Australia. There, they established societies on land that is currently submerged or separated into islands. Simultaneously, a considerable land bridge known as Beringia emerged between modern-day Russia and Alaska, which allowed humans to migrate from Asia to North America. Although the exact timing is still debated, it's likely that these migrations occurred when the last glaciation period was at its peak, about eighteen thousand years ago.
As Earth's climate eventually warmed and the ice melted, sea levels rose again, submerging land bridges and reshaping the world's coastlines and inland waterways. This brought about ecological opportunities as well as challenges, leading to the adaptation and isolation of various human groups.