The invention of the world's first bows and arrows may have played a part in the eventual colonisation of much of the world by Homo sapiens.

In a groundbreaking paper published yesterday, Paul Mellars, one of Britain's leading archaeologists and a Cambridge professor, suggests Homo sapiens' dominance of much of the world was triggered by a technological revolution which caused a demographic explosion between 60,000 and 80,000 years ago. As a result, the population of one particular human ethnic group expanded up to 1,000 times over.

The dramatic population increase then forced tribes to search for new hunting grounds, first within Africa, and then, by 60,000 years ago, outside it.