3 ms·
That sounds really interesting, does this hypothesis have a name so I can read up on it a bit more?
by freeflight 9y ago
That sounds really interesting, does this hypothesis have a name so I can read up on it a bit more?
- dotancohen 9y agoI'm not the OP, but the Toba catastrophe comes to mind. There were a few others.
- SophosQ 9y agoAs for what might explain the near-extinction humanity apparently once experienced, perhaps another kind of catastrophe, such as disease, hit the species. It may also be possible that such a disaster never happened in the first place — genetic research suggests modern humans descend from a single population of a few thousand survivors of a calamity, but another possible explanation is that modern humans descend from a few groups that left Africa at different times. -It's unlikely that the Toba catastrophe was the root cause of the bottleneck as reasoned in this investigation: https://www.livescience.com/29130-toba-supervolcano-effects.html https://www.livescience.com/29130-toba-supervolcano-effects.... - I wonder if the hypothesis of leaving Africa in small groups could be effectively tested.