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In a new study, scientists say that much before urbanization, humans were affecting the environment.

However, in the first phase, for almost 300 million years, nature was not disturbed. But at about 6,000 years ago, humans started agricultural practices in a time period called the "Anthropocene."

"When early humans started farming and became dominant in the terrestrial landscape, we see this dramatic restructuring of plant and animal communities," Nicholas Gotelli, senior author and biologist from the University of Vermont (UVM), explained in a news release.

"This tells us that humans have been having a massive effect on the environment for a very long time," S. Kathleen Lyons, study leader and a paleobiologist at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History added.

Researchers funded by the National Science Foundation looked at modern plant and animals species and compared them to ancient, fossilized species in order to assess some patterns.

They found that "segregated" or separated plant and animal pairs have become more common than aggregated ones, which is a peculiar habit that followed farming. Hence, while from 307 million years ago to about 6,000 years ago, "aggregated" species pairs were more common, the opposite trends emerged about 6,000 years ago during the great Neolithic revolution, when agriculture developed and populations spread globally.

"We think it's something that humans do that causes barriers to dispersal for both plant and animal species," Lyons said in UVM's release.

"If human activity has caused the terrestrial landscape to become more island-like, more fragmented, that would be consistent with this pattern of more segregated species pairs," Gotelli added.

Their study was recently published in the journal Nature.