Supernova Storm Wiped Out Mammoths?

Discovery News ^ | 09/28/05 | Jennifer Viegas

[planetesimal]

A supernova blast 41,000 years ago started a deadly chain of events that led to the extinction of mammoths and other animals in North America, according to two scientists.

If their supernova theory gains acceptance, it could explain why dozens of species on the continent became extinct 13,000 years ago.

[blam]

"There was a freeze 13,000ya that probably had great bearing on the extinction but pairing it with a 40,000ya event is a pretty tough case to make."

The Last Glacial Maximum(LGM) was 18-23,000 years ago. One of the coldest periods during the Ice Age.

I don't think there were ever enough humans in ancient times to hunt any animal to extinction. 75,000 years ago, there were only 2-10,000 humans worldwide.

[RunningWolf]

If this theory can be so "easily tested"

why does he have to present compelling arguments?

I think I know the answer.

heh heh heh heh heh heh heh hehheh heh

[RunningWolf]

I forgot.. Touche

[Godebert]

"I wonder whether the Northern European troll myths are a folk memory of the last Neaderthals. Presumably places like Norway would have been their last holdouts."

The last "holdouts" of the Neanderthals were in Spain about 27,000 years ago. At that time Scandanavia was completely covered under glacial ice and wouldn't see the arrival of modern humans for another 15,000 years or so. Perhaps the "troll" Myths just travelled along with the descendants of the modern humans who encountered the Neanderthals.

[Godebert]

75,000 years ago, there were only 2-10,000 humans worldwide.

Where did you get these numbers? Seems impossible to me that such a low number was able to sustain dispersed groups of modern humans over a global area. By that time some modern humans had already left Africa and dispersed into Asia.

[RunningWolf]

I think you were directing that to another poster. Also I had the same question you do now when I read that statement.

Wolf

[Godebert]

Blam....could you respond to my question in post #62 when you have some time?

Thanks...

[LiteKeeper]

YEC INTREP

[freedumb2003]

BS. they are closer than horses and asses

Neanderthals were democrats?

[blam]

The Toba Super Volcano 75,000 years ago reduced the human population to somewhere between 2,000 and 10,000 humans worldwide, the difference is dependent on whose study you believe.

"It was no coincidence that in the eastern Mediterranean at the change from OIS5 to OIS4, i.e. just after the Toba YTT event, the Afro-Asian biotic community was abruptly replaced by a palaeoarctic one, including the already cold-adapted Homo neanderthalensis (ref. Tchernov E. 1992a; Ambrose S.H. 1998)."

"Estimating how low the number of members of the species Homo sapiens could have been to account for today's human genetic uniformity involves a number of variables that are anything but clear-cut. It has been estimated that only 40 to 600 females (which translates into a total population of less than 3,000 persons; Harpending H.C. et al. 1993) came through the bottleneck. Another estimate arrived at 500 to 3,000 females (ref. Rogers A.R. 1993) and yet another at 1,000 to 4,300 individuals (Ayala F.J. 1996; Takahata N. at al. 1995). The highest estimate so far has 10,000 females of reproductive age as the minimum (ref. Ambrose S.H.. 1998). Even if the highest estimate is accepted, we are talking about the entire human race numbering no more than the population of one small country town today."

[blam]

Professor Stephen Oppenheimer (Stephen Oppenheimer is a world-recognised expert in the synthesis of DNA studies with archaeological and other evidence to track ancient migrations. He is a member of Green College, Oxford University.) illustrates the Toba Volcano event in his DNA study titled: Journey Of Mankind

[Godebert]

Excellent information and fascinating reading. Thanks for the link.

[Amish with an attitude]

Scientists grubbing for grant money alert!

[The Red Zone]

That's enough to make a giant's crouton, I guess.

[shuckmaster]

With the population that low, I have the question of whether they were all in one group or how many different groups. It seems that there had to have still been at least one group left behind in Africa and probably at least one group in the Arabia/Iraq area as well as at least one SE Asian group east of Toba. Were there also isolated groups in Pakistan, Australia, or China? If so, how long would it take for these micro groups barely emerging from a 1,000 year nuclear winter to contact each other again?

[blam]

The best answer I can give you:

Click on The Journey Of Mankind link in post #71.

Either that or read Oppenheimer's book, Out Of Eden.

[SunkenCiv]

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[SunkenCiv]

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The Cycle of Cosmic Catastrophes: Flood, Fire, and Famine in the History of Civilization by Richard Firestone, Allen West, Simon Warwick-Smith

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[SunkenCiv]

from over 18 months ago.

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[ukie55]

*chirp, chirp*