Posted on 08/06/2010 6:41:18 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
At some point between 195,000 and 123,000 years ago, the population size of Homo sapiens plummeted, thanks to cold, dry climate conditions that left much of our ancestors' African homeland uninhabitable. Everyone alive today is descended from a group of people from a single region who survived this catastrophe...
...studies of the DNA of modern-day people indicate that, once upon a time, our ancestors did in fact undergo a dramatic population decline. Although scientists lack a precise timeline for the origin and near extinction of our species, we can surmise from the fossil record that our forebears arose throughout Africa shortly before 195,000 years ago. Back then the climate was mild and food was plentiful; life was good. But around 195,000 years ago, conditions began to deteriorate. The planet entered a long glacial stage known as Marine Isotope Stage 6 (MIS6) that lasted until roughly 123,000 years ago.
A detailed record of Africa's environmental conditions during glacial stage 6 does not exist, but based on more recent, better-known glacial stages, climatologists surmise that it was almost certainly cool and arid and that its deserts were probably significantly expanded relative to their modern extents. Much of the landmass would have been uninhabitable. While the planet was in the grip of this icy regime, the number of people plummeted perilously -- from more than 10,000 breeding individuals to just hundreds. Estimates of exactly when this bottleneck occurred and how small the population became vary among genetic studies, but all of them indicate that everyone alive today is descended from a small population that lived in one region of Africa sometime during this global cooling phase.
(Excerpt) Read more at scientificamerican.com ...
OMG MArk Twain was so brilliant!!!!!!
I wish I had 10% of his wit
I just read recently that he was friends with Nicolai Tesla! Another of my heroes... he was beyond brilliant
-Mark Twain
I’ve had that happen once or twice as well. I think it was an image not flattering to Zero.
The first X-Ray photo was taken of Mark Twain, by Nicola Tesla. :’) Tesla didn’t realize what he’d done, didn’t patent it (not that his patents were necessarily honored anyway), but was acknowledged by Roentgren as one of those who had been in that same prediscovery situation.
Blam saw a lot of this transpire.
;<)
He no doubt had his moments.
I wish I had 10% of his wit
You and me both! The man could certainly turn a phrase.
I read her book and found it unconvincing. Interesting, but almost silly. It read more like a science fiction novel...hmmm
George Bernard Shaw quotes
“Christianity might be a good thing if anyone ever tried it.”
“Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.”
“You see things; and you say, ‘Why?’ But I dream things that never were; and I say, ‘Why not?’” [later used by Bobby Kennedy]
“Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all others because you were born in it.”
“I want to be all used up when I die.”
:People always get tired of one another. I grow tired of myself whenever I am left alone for ten minutes, and I am certain that I am fonder of myself than anyone can be of another person.”
“We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.”
“I would like to take you seriously, but to do so would be an affront to your intelligence.”
My personal favorite:
“If you can’t get rid of the skeleton in your closet, you’d best teach it to dance.”
also from Mark Twain:
“...armaments were not created chiefly for the protection of the nations but for their enslavement.” — Letter to Baroness von Suttner, 2/17/1898
and that sounds like Ike’s “every gun a theft” speech. Here’s one of Clemens’ that Ike used in WWII:
“It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.”
(Ahem)
wow, one of Twain’s, but better known from Will Rogers (when you steal, steal from the best):
“Buy land, they’re not making it anymore.”
It’s funny though, because I don’t recall posting this in the Religion forum here, nor did I put “religion” in the keywords, nor did I ping the stalkers (in which category I don’t place you :’). And yet, they’ve been popping up on the GGG topics all night. And Religion forum topics have “science” in their keywords, which such topics should not have. It’s part of the escalating fetish practices here on FR. Either they blow over, or they blow up.
“But who prays for Satan? Who, in eighteen centuries, has had the common humanity to pray for the one sinner that needed it most?” — Mark Twain
“It ain’t those parts of the Bible that I can’t understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand.” — Mark Twain
“The Christian’s Bible is a drug store. Its contents remain the same, but the medical practice changes.” — Mark Twain
“Often it does seem a pity that Noah and his party did not miss the boat.” — Mark Twain
“Man was made at the end of the week’s work when God was tired.” — Mark Twain
“Martyrdom covers a multitude of sins.” — Mark Twain
“Loyalty to petrified opinion never yet broke a chain or freed a human soul.” — Mark Twain
“Under certain circumstances, profanity provides a relief denied even to prayer.” — Mark Twain
I’m sure Eaker’s the only one who was thinking that. Y’know. And then actually said it.
Not anymore. :’)
That’s journalism for ya. Years of shilling for AGW has warped what passes for their thinking — natural climate change not only couldn’t have been serious, it may not have ever happened at all. :’)
There really is no evidence for a universal flood. On the other hand, many cultures have ancient stories of glaciation.
There’s also no evidence for Noah’s existence, apart from the tale in Genesis, which is itself obviously implausible at best, and it shares with most other flood stories (and other global disaster stories) from around the world the characteristic of having the rest of the Earth’s living things die.
The manure (which would have wound up 100s of tons) could have been shoveled over the side during the voyage. But the 37,000 species he and his family would have to have taken aboard would have required both a larger boat, and a bunch more boats tied behind to hold the food supply for the animals.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but YOU started it: ;^)
That’s rich, coming as it does from the atheist and socialist Mark Twain...
I don't know if your intent was to discredit him generally or his comment re science specifically. The point is, his statement would probably be more accurate in today's world than when he penned it. And as often as not, what he says about Christianity and Christians is also accurate. There are just as many hypocrites in the church as there are out of the church. The fact that he points that out should give pause, especially to those IN the church but, it probably won't, and didn't. Of course his fellow travelers will take it as pro forma evidence that ALL Christians are hypocrites and not worthy of trust. THAT is of course, too broad a brush also.
Weak Reed indeed:
“A detailed record of Africa’s environmental conditions during glacial stage 6 does not exist.....”
They do not really know.There could have been humans in other parts of the world 200,000 years ago,and I am pretty skeptical that the view is not somewhat politically driven.
Peking Man is dated ti about 750,000 years ago, and was a hominid, not homo sapiens, ,but there were homo sapiens there in China before this so called bottle neck, based on a geological record later of human existance that is yet to be proven to have come out of Africa.It is more likely that there were groups of hominids around the world that evolved to be humans along several different lines.
So we are to believe that all human beings died off except for a few African humans who were the progenitors of the entire human race? Thats just so pimpin’ bro!
It is also baloney.
Here is a link about a half million years of temperature changes:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ice_Age_Temperature.png
I tried to move the first chart from the link to here, but couldn’t figure out how to do it. Maybe someone else could do that. It is a nice chart. This article seems to conflict with the idea that the big bottleneck in homo sapiens occurred around 74,000 years ago because of the Toba supervolcano, which while not the most dramatic zig on the chart, is still very noticeable, and marks a steady drop in temperature over the next thousands of years.
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