Study: This is how human ancestors avoided extinction 900,000 years ago
Scientists try to study gaps in human history - CC0
A recent study revealed that humans were on the verge of extinction after their numbers in Africa declined to only a few hundred about 900,000 years ago.
The study, which used a new technology to analyze modern genetic data, and was published by the Independent newspaper, showed that a group of only 1,280 individuals was able to survive the wave of extinction that affected human ancestors a long time ago.
The study, which was published in the journal Science, indicated that the radical decline in human numbers continued for about 117 years, which constituted a critical period in human history known as the “bottleneck.”
Population geneticist at the University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, Haiping Li, explained that about 98.7 percent of humans disappeared in that era.
The Chinese scientist who co-led the study said, “There is a gap in the fossil record of Africa and Eurasia between 950,000 and 650,000 years ago,” adding that “the discovery of the bottleneck stage would explain that strange gap in the Pleistocene era.”
In turn, Giorgio Manzi, an anthropologist from Sapienza University in Rome, Italy, agreed with his Chinese counterpart that the recent study may “explain the gap in African and Eurasian fossil records through this bottleneck in the Early Stone Age ,” because “the time period coincides with the history of that loss.” large amounts of fossil evidence.
Regarding the reasons that put human ancestors on the brink of extinction, the Chinese scientist Li explained that that period was part of the early transition to the middle Pleistocene era, which is a time of radical climate change. He pointed out that "glacial cycles during that era became longer and more intense, causing long periods of drought on the African continent."
He also told me that "the changing climate may have wiped out human ancestors and forced new human species to emerge."
The study's authors suggested that "that period of time led to the emergence of the species that is the last common ancestor of Denisovans, Neanderthals, and Homo sapiens."
Study co-author Yi Hsuan Pan wondered whether natural selection during a bottleneck might have accelerated human brain evolution.
The study is expected to open new horizons in studying the stages of human evolution, such as the places where ancient human ancestors lived and how they overcame catastrophic climate changes.
Source: websites