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Humans nearly wiped out 70,000 years ago, study says.
- jeroen 19y agosame as http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=172767 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=172767
- mattdennewitz 19y agodont worry -- we'll step forward and pick up the slack where nature has failed
- pg 19y agoThis is the most astounding news story I've read in a month. It is amazing that something like this could have happened as recently as 70,000 years ago. It does finally explain the African Eve, though.
- palish 19y agoWhat was last month's?
- hugh 19y agoWhat do you mean that it "finally explains the African Eve"? There would have to be a last universal common female ancestor whether this had happened or not.
- whacked_new 19y agoAlso amazing is how this recent population decline and rebound of people based in Africa was only a few dozens of millenia away from the "mitochondrial blonde" (if you will) 6-10k years agohttp://www.ku.dk/english/news/?content=http://www.ku.dk/english/news/blue-eyes.htm http://www.ku.dk/english/news/?content=http://www.ku.dk/engl...
- deleted 19y ago[deleted]
- fa 19y agoNot sure if this is the same as the Mt Toba supervolcano eruption 74,000 years ago in Sumatra that started a 1000 year long ice age and probably reduced the human population to 10'000 individuals: http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/journey/ http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/journey/
- brent 19y agoFor anyone interested in the original paper (this journal is freely available to all): http://download.ajhg.org/AJHG/pdf/PIIS0002929708002553.pdf http://download.ajhg.org/AJHG/pdf/PIIS0002929708002553.pdf
- mtts 19y agoAmazing how short the memory of science journalists can be. This is old news. As you'll find out if you do a quick google: http://www.google.com/search?q=humanity%20near%20extinction http://www.google.com/search?q=humanity%20near%20extinction A lot of the results are older than, well, last week. I believe this idea was even mentioned in a National Geographic documentary. Humans are smart because they're the descendants of a small group (some say around 2000 - so much for inbreeding being bad for your offspring, I guess) that managed to survive some terrible event at some point. The dumber ones died off. Along those lines, btw, I read somewhere that even after this near extinction it was still only a limited number of people that actually produced any offspring. The worst example of this is the Inca and the Dahomey empires where only the emperor / king and a few highly placed officials could actually have sex, but even in Medieval Europe most peasant males (that is to say, most of the population) did not have any children at all.
- moog 19y agoHumans! Fascinating!