About 900 thousand years ago, humanity was on the verge of extinction – research
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For 117 thousand years, humanity was on the verge of extinction due to extreme climatic conditions. This is reported by The Guardian with reference to a study of the East China Pedagogical University, published in the scientific journal Science. Scientists have established that between 930,000 and 813,000 years ago, there was a significant decline in the human population. The number of individuals with the ability to reproduce fell from 100,000 to 1,280. It was possible to find out with the help of genomic analysis of about 3,154 modern people from 10 African and 40 non-African populations. Scientists have established the approximate date of appearance of specific genes by the number of their variations. And the frequency of appearance of these genes indicates the increase or decrease of the population in that period. Photo: Jane Blackbird/Alamy “The numbers obtained from our study correspond to the number of species that are now threatened with extinction,” said study co-author Giorgio Manzi, a professor and anthropologist at Sapienza University of Rome. Scientists believe that the decrease in the number of people is associated with extreme cold, a decrease in the temperature of the sea surface and long droughts that prevailed in Africa and Eurasia at that time. The authors of the study assume that these conditions could have provoked the emergence of a new species – the Heidelberg man. Some scientists consider him to be the common ancestor of modern humans and Neanderthals and Denisovans. According to Giorgio Manzi, humanity was indeed in danger. However, the chances of evolution remain even in extremely difficult conditions. “We were lucky (that we survived – ed.), but … we know from evolutionary biology that the emergence of a new species can occur in small isolated populations,” the professor said. We will remind, in China, archaeologists found a skull that may belong to a hitherto unknown species of people. Read also: Scientists have calculated how many people are needed to create a colony on Mars
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