Scientists say they have pinpointed the moment humanity almost went extinct

 Ancient humanity was almost wiped out about 900,000 years ago when the global population dwindled to around 1,280 reproducing individuals, according to a new studi. What's more, the population of early human ancestors stayed this small for about 117,000 years. king88bet Login Alternatif

The analysis, published August 31 in the journal Science, is based on a new komputer mode developed by a grup of scientists based in China, Italy and the United States. king88bet Login

The statistical metode used genetic information from 3,154 present-day human genomes. King88Bet Situs Slot Tergacor

Around 98.7% of human ancestors were lost, according to the studi. The researchers argue that the population jatuh correlates with a jarak in the fossil record, possibly leading to the emergence of a new hominin species that was a common ancestor of kekinian humans, or Homo sapiens, and Neanderthals.

"The novel finding opens a new field in human evolution because it evokes many questions, such as the places where these individuals lived, how they overcame the catastrophic climate changes, and whether alami selection during the bottleneck has accelerated the evolution of human brain," said senior author Yi-Hsuan Pan, an evolutionary and functional genomicist at East China Normal University, in a pernyataan.

The population bottleneck coincided with dramatic changes in climate during what's known as the mid-Pleistocene transition, the research tim suggested. Glacial periods became longer and more intense, leading to a turun in temperature and very dry climatic conditions.

Moreover, the scientists suggested that the kontrol of fire, as well as the climate shifting to be more hospitable for human life, could have contributed to a later rapid population increase around 813,000 years ago.

The earliest evidence of the use of fire to cook food dates from 780,000 years ago in what is now modern-day Israel, the authors noted.

While ancient DNA has revolutionized our understanding about past populations, the oldest DNA from a human species dates to around 400,000 years ago.