Today there are more than 8 billion humans on Earth. But according to a recent genetic study, there may have been a moment in our past when the entire human population dropped to just 1,280 adults. That is a number small enough for every single human alive to fit inside one large school building, or just a small section of a sports stadium.
If that happened today, Homo sapiens would instantly become one of the most endangered species on Earth, yet scientists now think something very close to this may actually have happened 930,000 years ago. But is it true?
New Scientist first reported on this controversial discovery back in 2023. Since then, scientists have been debating what it really means. In this video, we dig into the genetic clues that suggest humanity nearly vanished and explore what kind of catastrophe could have pushed our species to the brink.
If humanity came this close to extinction once, how many other times has it happened? And what's to stop it from happening again?['Civ sez: The problem is not a conflict between the DNA and the archaeology. The problem is, nitwit misinterpretations of what the DNA means.]
Cheetahs have survived at least two major genetic bottleneck events in history—roughly 100,000 years ago and again about 10,000–12,000 years ago That’s why they have almost no genetic diversity.
If you’ve sat in west coast traffic recently...it wouldn’t be so bad.
That ain’t nothing. There were only eight people left after the flood.
I love this “we” business. “We” who?
Uh. We mighta made a mistake about this...😆
Humanity itself may not be wiped out but the world is well on the way to wiping out civilized mankind.
All this humans origins stuff is best guesses. This is why they contradict each other. If you don’t entertain hoi polloi with best guesses and slightly fresher takes. That American gullibles can see on their 65” x 4K boob tubes, your funding will dry up. Public and private from bored NGOs.
A bigger question is, did other human extinctions actually happen? This would explain why there are no more elves, or hobbits, or leprechauns.