

Humans nearly wiped out 70,000 years ago, study says. - epi0Bauqu
http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/04/24/close.call.ap/index.html?eref=rss_mostpopular

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brent
For anyone interested in the original paper (this journal is freely available
to all): <http://download.ajhg.org/AJHG/pdf/PIIS0002929708002553.pdf>

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mtts
Amazing 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>

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.

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pg
This 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.

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hugh
What 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.

~~~
pg
It explains why she was so surprisingly recent.

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hugh
Ah, I see what you mean. That makes sense.

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fa
Not 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/>

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jeroen
same as <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=172767>

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moog
Humans! Fascinating!

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mattdennewitz
dont worry -- we'll step forward and pick up the slack where nature has failed

