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The worst year was probably something more like 70,000 years ago, when the human population fell as low as 2,000 individuals. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/scienc
by ProjectArcturis 4y ago
The worst year was probably something more like 70,000 years ago, when the human population fell as low as 2,000 individuals.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/2975862.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/2975862.stm
- merek 4y agoPossibly caused by the Youngest Toba supervolcano eruption: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toba_catastrophe_theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toba_catastrophe_theory See "Genetic bottleneck hypothesis"
- hkdobrev 4y agoIt seems this hypothesis has been dismissed: https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-22355515 https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-22355515 https://www.livescience.com/29130-toba-supervolcano-effects.html https://www.livescience.com/29130-toba-supervolcano-effects....
- jchanimal 4y agoIt doesn’t mean the population fell that low. It means some sub population that size happened to be the ancestors of today’s humans. Nothing is proven about why the other sub populations aren’t represented today or when they died out. It could have been gradual, after our common ancestor group had successfully outcompeted the other groups.