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Humans nearly wiped out 70,000 years ago, study says
by CNN
Thanks to Chuck for the link.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/04/24/close.call.ap/index.html
Humans nearly wiped out 70,000 years ago, study says
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Human beings may have had a brush with extinction 70,000 years ago, an extensive genetic study suggests.
The human population at that time was reduced to small isolated groups in Africa, apparently because of drought, according to an analysis released Thursday.
The report notes that a separate study by researchers at Stanford University estimated that the number of early humans may have shrunk as low as 2,000 before numbers began to expand again in the early Stone Age.
"This study illustrates the extraordinary power of genetics to reveal insights into some of the key events in our species' history," said Spencer Wells, National Geographic Society explorer in residence.
"Tiny bands of early humans, forced apart by harsh environmental conditions, coming back from the brink to reunite and populate the world. Truly an epic drama, written in our DNA."
Wells is director of the Genographic Project, launched in 2005 to study anthropology using genetics. The report was published in the American Journal of Human Genetics.
Studies using mitochondrial DNA, which is passed down through mothers, have traced modern humans to a single "mitochondrial Eve," who lived in Africa about 200,000 years ago.
The migrations of humans out of Africa to populate the rest of the world appear to have begun about 60,000 years ago, but little has been known about humans between Eve and that dispersal.
The new study looks at the mitochondrial DNA of the Khoi and San people in South Africa, who appear to have diverged from other people between 90,000 and 150,000 years ago.
The researchers led by Doron Behar of Rambam Medical Center in Haifa, Israel, and Saharon Rosset of IBM T.J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York, and Tel Aviv University concluded that humans separated into small populations before the Stone Age, when they came back together and began to increase in numbers and spread to other areas.
Eastern Africa experienced a series of severe droughts between 135,000 and 90,000 years ago, and researchers said this climatological shift may have contributed to the population changes, dividing into small, isolated groups that developed independently.
Paleontologist Meave Leakey, a Genographic adviser, asked, "Who would have thought that as recently as 70,000 years ago, extremes of climate had reduced our population to such small numbers that we were on the very edge of extinction?"
Today, more than 6.6 billion people inhabit the globe, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
The research was funded by the National Geographic Society, IBM, the Waitt Family Foundation, the Seaver Family Foundation, Family Tree DNA and Arizona Research Labs.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/04/24/close.call.ap/index.html
Humans nearly wiped out 70,000 years ago, study says
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Human beings may have had a brush with extinction 70,000 years ago, an extensive genetic study suggests.
The human population at that time was reduced to small isolated groups in Africa, apparently because of drought, according to an analysis released Thursday.
The report notes that a separate study by researchers at Stanford University estimated that the number of early humans may have shrunk as low as 2,000 before numbers began to expand again in the early Stone Age.
"This study illustrates the extraordinary power of genetics to reveal insights into some of the key events in our species' history," said Spencer Wells, National Geographic Society explorer in residence.
"Tiny bands of early humans, forced apart by harsh environmental conditions, coming back from the brink to reunite and populate the world. Truly an epic drama, written in our DNA."
Wells is director of the Genographic Project, launched in 2005 to study anthropology using genetics. The report was published in the American Journal of Human Genetics.
Studies using mitochondrial DNA, which is passed down through mothers, have traced modern humans to a single "mitochondrial Eve," who lived in Africa about 200,000 years ago.
The migrations of humans out of Africa to populate the rest of the world appear to have begun about 60,000 years ago, but little has been known about humans between Eve and that dispersal.
The new study looks at the mitochondrial DNA of the Khoi and San people in South Africa, who appear to have diverged from other people between 90,000 and 150,000 years ago.
The researchers led by Doron Behar of Rambam Medical Center in Haifa, Israel, and Saharon Rosset of IBM T.J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York, and Tel Aviv University concluded that humans separated into small populations before the Stone Age, when they came back together and began to increase in numbers and spread to other areas.
Eastern Africa experienced a series of severe droughts between 135,000 and 90,000 years ago, and researchers said this climatological shift may have contributed to the population changes, dividing into small, isolated groups that developed independently.
Paleontologist Meave Leakey, a Genographic adviser, asked, "Who would have thought that as recently as 70,000 years ago, extremes of climate had reduced our population to such small numbers that we were on the very edge of extinction?"
Today, more than 6.6 billion people inhabit the globe, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
The research was funded by the National Geographic Society, IBM, the Waitt Family Foundation, the Seaver Family Foundation, Family Tree DNA and Arizona Research Labs.
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Posted: Friday, April 25, 2008 | PermalinkComments 1 - 49 of 49 |
Reload Comments | Back to Top | Page Numbers2. Comment #168461 by ThoughtsonCommonToad on April 25, 2008 at 6:52 am
Slightly different emphasis down at the BBCHuman line 'nearly split in two'
Ancient humans started down the path of evolving into two separate species before merging back into a single population, a genetic study suggests.
The genetic split in Africa resulted in distinct populations that lived in isolation for as much as 100,000 years, the scientists say.
I wonder why the difference in emphasis?
From
"Tiny bands of early humans, forced apart by harsh environmental conditions, coming back from the brink to reunite and populate the world. Truly an epic drama, written in our DNA."for CNN
To
"We don't know how long it takes for hominids to fission off into separate species, but clearly they were separated for a very long time," said Dr Spencer Wells, director of the Genographic Project.from the BBC.
"They came back together again during the Late Stone Age - driven by population expansion."
Other Comments by ThoughtsonCommonToad
3. Comment #168484 by Ygern on April 25, 2008 at 7:07 am
Humans nearly wiped out 70,000 years ago
Some design, huh!
Other Comments by Ygern
4. Comment #168489 by He'sAVeryNaughtyBoy on April 25, 2008 at 7:08 am
"I wonder why the difference in emphasis?"Not wishing to stereotype, but CNN being American would market its headlines towards the American extremes of emotion (everything being super awesome or super tragic). So the headline of "humans nearly made extinct" is used.
BBC being British knows that its market is more interested in curiosities and things that are considered QI (quite interesting). Different brandings for different markets.
Other Comments by He'sAVeryNaughtyBoy
5. Comment #168490 by suffolkthinker on April 25, 2008 at 7:08 am
How can that be? Surely God only created man 6,000 years ago (on a Tuesday)? :-)Other Comments by suffolkthinker
6. Comment #168495 by Bonzai on April 25, 2008 at 7:09 am
The human population at that time was reduced to small isolated groups in Africa, apparently because of drought, according to an analysis released Thursday
Is was drought, not flood! How can this be!!?? The Bible says FLOOD!
Other Comments by Bonzai
7. Comment #168500 by Broicher on April 25, 2008 at 7:12 am
I already see the theist when they read "... traced modern humans to a single 'mitochondrial Eve' ..." shouting out: "The bible is correct!!! There was an Eve, let's look for Adam. Who cares about the 200000 years miscalculation!".Other Comments by Broicher
8. Comment #168506 by will young on April 25, 2008 at 7:16 am
Beautiful mitochondrial DNA! Got to love her. Other Comments by will young
9. Comment #168520 by Vaal on April 25, 2008 at 7:21 am
Humans are evolving into two separate species now, Homo Sapiens Religites (otherwise known as Morlocks) and Homo Sapiens Rationalists. In several thousand years the Morlocks will be living in the deserts with their camels or underground living in fear of their small despotic desert God. The rest of us will be colonising the galaxy, with the occasional foray back to Earth as an anthropological exercise to see how our our superstitious cousins are getting on.
Every now and then we shall light a burning bush and chat to them about some new laws for them to follow, or what food not to eat, so as to preserve the other species they haven't driven to extinction. Thou shalt not eat Whale on pain of stoning. The Tiger is sacred. Follow the shoe. No wait, follow the gourd...
Other Comments by Vaal
10. Comment #168528 by j.mills on April 25, 2008 at 7:26 am
Studies using mitochondrial DNA, which is passed down through mothers, have traced modern humans to a single "mitochondrial Eve," who lived in Africa about 200,000 years ago.
This is phrased as if mEve was a discovery rather than a logical inevitability. Yankee slant, I fancy.
2000 humans, though. A situation ripe for drama. Why doesn't Hollywood realise that good science makes better movies than bad science?
Other Comments by j.mills
11. Comment #168548 by mixmastergaz on April 25, 2008 at 7:43 am
How long before some halfwit or other contrives an argument from improbability from this story?
edit: ...oh and another version of the teleological argument!
Other Comments by mixmastergaz
12. Comment #168554 by moderndaythomas on April 25, 2008 at 7:49 am
Comment#168528 J.mills
Human drama indeed. Though if Hollywood were to get a hold of it, they would add or subtract a zero to the end of it, suggest creation and insert a pyramid.
As for the near extinction, this would have surely been apparent to the human populations, I think, and stress to them the importance of cooperation between surviving communities. This would further drive the need for reciprocity, and compassion.
This has Gould written all over it.
Other Comments by moderndaythomas
13. Comment #168565 by blasphemer on April 25, 2008 at 7:55 am
j.mills wrote:
Why doesn't Hollywood realise that good science makes better movies than bad science?
Because it takes more creativity to try to really imagine what our ancestors were actually like and what they actually did than to come up with nonsense.
Consider for example the recent movie 10,000 BC. This could have been a truly visionary movie about the state of some part of the world at that time with characters that experienced realistic struggles. Instead they turned it into a comic book movie.
Producers have no huevos and we end up with uninspiring garbage at the theaters.
Other Comments by blasphemer
14. Comment #168624 by notsobad on April 25, 2008 at 8:39 am
See also:Human line 'nearly split in two'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7358868.stm
Other Comments by notsobad
15. Comment #168644 by cyris8400 on April 25, 2008 at 8:51 am
As the first commentator mentioned, I'm pretty sure that the super-volcanic eruption of Toba in Sumatra 70,000 years ago is the ultimate cause of this bottleneck in DNA studies. Drought would only have been the proximate cause which was probably itself caused by the supervolcano eruption. Strange that they wouldn't mention something that would enthrall readers more than drought. Probably just didn't research it enough.Other Comments by cyris8400
16. Comment #168666 by moderndaythomas on April 25, 2008 at 9:16 am
Comment#168624 notsobad.
The BBC site is one I visit frequently, though I hadn't seen this one yet. You can still count on the UK to give you science without agenda. Something that I am afraid of on this side of the Atlantic.
I'll be showing this one to my kids. I like to get them excited about the great human diaspora.
Other Comments by moderndaythomas
17. Comment #168667 by mikethebike on April 25, 2008 at 9:16 am
Right on cyris8400. Thought of that as soon as I saw this posted. You beat me to it.
I think catastrophic events like that of a super volcano are not considered enough in evolutionary studies. In fact, seems to me that the next steps in scientific "evolution" is for more interdisciplinary studies.
Although the process of "connecting the dots" between scientific disciplines has made considerable progress in recent decades, it seems to me that there are tremendous openings for generalists in the mold of the "Renaissance man" who specialize in cross-disciplinary studies. Question is will any educational or government institutions provide the support?
Other Comments by mikethebike
18. Comment #168696 by Dinah on April 25, 2008 at 9:46 am
REPENT! The end is, I mean was, nigh, I mean nearly was nigh, was nigh nearly, but wasn't really, oh never mind...Other Comments by Dinah
19. Comment #168708 by Double Bass Atheist on April 25, 2008 at 9:58 am
I have this mental image of a creationist with his fingers planted firmly in his ears wailing,
"No! God created the world 6000 years ago!!!"
"No! God created the world 6000 years ago!!!"
"No! God created the world 6000 years ago!!!"
Other Comments by Double Bass Atheist
20. Comment #168713 by Epinephrine on April 25, 2008 at 10:03 am
A bit OT, but I figured I'd mention it in a thread that is still being read - there is a poll asking whether ID should be taught in the classroom over on http://www.myspace.com/expelledthemovement if anyone wants to voice their opinion on the issue, the rational out there have pushed the score from 2:1 in favour of ID to about 5:1 against it so far. You may have already followed the link from PZ's Pharyngula blog, but if not, it's a chance to embarass the Expelled folk by having the poll on their site clearly against ID in the classroom :) Other Comments by Epinephrine
21. Comment #168728 by Klaatu barada nikto on April 25, 2008 at 10:14 am
Epinephrine,I got my vote in, but I had to remove the semi-colon from the link.
Other Comments by Klaatu barada nikto
22. Comment #168731 by Bonzai on April 25, 2008 at 10:18 am
Vaal,In several thousand years the Morlocks will be living in the deserts with their camels or underground living in fear of their small despotic desert God. The rest of us will be colonising the galaxy, with the occasional foray back to Earth as an anthropological exercise to see how our our superstitious cousins are getting on.
Well except for one little wrinkle, the Morlocks are evolutionary favoured because they have vastly more children. Stupidity is a selected trait, maybe it is us who are going the way of the Dodo.
Jesus said the dumb shalt inherit the earth long before Darwin.
Other Comments by Bonzai
23. Comment #168743 by Epinephrine on April 25, 2008 at 10:27 am
Thanks, I edited the link so it will work now. Nearly 10:1 for "No" at present! :D Other Comments by Epinephrine
24. Comment #168748 by Geoff on April 25, 2008 at 10:28 am
9. Comment #168520 by Vaal Humans are evolving into two separate species now, Homo Sapiens Religites (otherwise known as Morlocks) and Homo Sapiens Rationalists.
In several thousand years the Morlocks will be living in the deserts with their camels or underground living in fear of their small despotic desert God. The rest of us will be colonising the galaxy, with the occasional foray back to Earth as an anthropological exercise to see how our our superstitious cousins are getting on.
I'm not so sure that's a good name for them; have you read "The Time Machine" recently?
I don't think I want to be one of the Eloi.
Why not simply Homo creotardus fucktardus and Homo sapiens sapiens?
Other Comments by Geoff
25. Comment #168772 by arogop on April 25, 2008 at 10:42 am
13. Comment #168565 by blasphemer
I thought 10,000 was at least ok. It did have as the central theme a group of people going from hunter-gatherers to an agricultural society.
At least it got some people interested in knowing more.
Other Comments by arogop
26. Comment #168814 by the great teapot on April 25, 2008 at 11:23 am
The greatest comeback until Lazarus.Other Comments by the great teapot
27. Comment #168871 by whatyouthink on April 25, 2008 at 12:15 pm
Rather old news... I expect there are lots of things that would come as a great surprise to the Ignorant masses...Other Comments by whatyouthink
28. Comment #168872 by righton on April 25, 2008 at 12:16 pm
EpinephrineThat is so awesome. I just voted, no of course. It is now roughly 13:1 for "NO"
Other Comments by righton
29. Comment #168896 by MaxD on April 25, 2008 at 12:42 pm
Doesn't this kind of put the kibash on Neanderthal/Homo sapiens cross breeding? Other Comments by MaxD
30. Comment #168914 by moderndaythomas on April 25, 2008 at 12:54 pm
MaxD
Doesn't this kind of put the kibash on Neanderthal/Homo sapiens cross breeding?
I though Sykes did that when he extracted DNA from a neanderthal and compared it to that of modern Europeans?
"Seven Daughters of Eve" wasn't it?
Other Comments by moderndaythomas
31. Comment #169015 by Oppomystic on April 25, 2008 at 2:12 pm
ID Poll when I was there...87% NO
And no neanderthal/sapien crossbreeding? Where did I get this freakin' occipital bun??!
Other Comments by Oppomystic
32. Comment #169033 by robotaholic on April 25, 2008 at 2:20 pm
89 percent now :dOther Comments by robotaholic
33. Comment #169038 by rod-the-farmer on April 25, 2008 at 2:22 pm
I liked the Spencer Wells program so much I bought the video ! BUT......I would really like to see a video we can all watch on YouTube or maybe on Nova TV, showing just how the analysis of the DNA collected around the world, has been turned into logical conclusions. I would buy THAT video too. I think there is some real meat there, waiting for public revelation, to help convince the fundies, that people like Wells have real science on their side. Something we can ALL see and agree with. This sort of stuff may be available already. But I would expect to hear about it by now. Anyone seen anything ? I agree with Richard D. that we need people out there making science popular, and understandable by the masses who take little interest in science. I just pulled one of my astronomy books off the shelf in my personal library, and find it pre-dates the launch of the Hubble. Yet it still makes fascinating reading (I read a LOT - almost anything). The more we can make science exciting stuff, the better chance we have to keep the fundies a marginal segment of society. Dog, I wish I were a science teacher. Mr. Passion, that's me. OK, history too. Other Comments by rod-the-farmer
34. Comment #169231 by Lucas on April 25, 2008 at 4:26 pm
So then, we could have massive nuclear holocaust, leave a couple thousand alive, and bounce back? Well, things are looking up!Bonzai - You forget us spacefaring folk will also be cloning ourselves, extending our lives and/or becoming cyborgs.
mikethebike - Fully agree, that's what's needed. Will they fund it? No.
95% now. Ha ha we win.
Other Comments by Lucas
35. Comment #169256 by Border Collie on April 25, 2008 at 4:45 pm
The other 1,998 people must have been the pool from which Cain and Abel married ... no, wait, the article said 70,000 years ago not 6,000 years ago ... I'm all mixed up ... so, OK, if we'd gone extinct ... just kidding ... I'm gonna go walk the dogs ...Other Comments by Border Collie
36. Comment #169304 by chuckgoecke on April 25, 2008 at 6:31 pm
I think the most significant thing about this is that it shows how closely related we all are; all modern humans. It also would explain a lot about how Neanderthal, Heidelberg, Java men, etc. all were outside our line of descent. Our racial differences are trivial, compared with our similarities. Our ancestors also undoubtedly drove out of existence, most of these other human experiments, although not necessarily directly, like actually killing and eating them, just out competing them. I think human evolution and anthropology are some of my favorite topics. I mean squids are cool, bu humans, I just have a close place in my heart for them. Other Comments by chuckgoecke
37. Comment #169361 by Christopher Davis on April 25, 2008 at 9:18 pm
Yeah, 70,000 yrs. sounds about right for the bottleneck, but I'm not buying the part about all modern humans being descended from a population that migrated out of Africa 60,000 yrs. ago. There is evidence of anatomically modern humans in Australia dating to approx. that time.As for interbreeding between Neanderthals and the ancestors of modern humans, I think the cranial features of classic Neanderthals scream "seperate species"...however, I'm not so sure that such a clear line can be drawn between "archaic homo sapiens" and homo erectus.
Other Comments by Christopher Davis
38. Comment #169370 by Russell Blackford on April 25, 2008 at 10:36 pm
This is pretty old news, and it is usually linked to the Toba eruption. Like others, I'm puzzled why the latest research and public reports of it don't mention this, if only to say that it's now not considered the cause of the bottleneck (if indeed that's the case).Other Comments by Russell Blackford
39. Comment #169436 by VanYoungman on April 26, 2008 at 5:02 am
This would further support my theory that the genes for the lowering of the larynx and rounding of the tongue which were necessary for speech were selected because they conserved water in the human body. The process starts about 100,000 years ago and coincides with the severe drought. Other Comments by VanYoungman
40. Comment #169438 by AntonAAK on April 26, 2008 at 5:05 am
Current figures from the MySpace ID poll.Should ID theory be taught in the classroom?
Yes (793 votes) 0.45%
No (173657 votes) 98.30%
On their own site! Fantastic.
Having said that it would be interesting to see how many of their supporters could say which number is higher. Theirs does begin with a 7 after all...
Other Comments by AntonAAK
41. Comment #169446 by Epinephrine on April 26, 2008 at 5:55 am
Well, since we've successfully managed to get the vast majority of the votes there, perhaps we can influence the "yahoo movies" rankings, since Expelled was a "B" yesterday, and it's down to a "B-" today - but the vast majority of the "helpful" reviews are still positive.
If you have a yahoo account, feel free to go vote with your heart ;)
Other Comments by Epinephrine
42. Comment #169568 by moderndaythomas on April 26, 2008 at 10:08 am
This would further support my theory that the genes for the lowering of the larynx and rounding of the tongue which were necessary for speech were selected because they conserved water in the human body. The process starts about 100,000 years ago and coincides with the severe drought.
Not to sound like a broken record, but if you couple this need to preserve water with the necessity for cooperation between thinning and struggling human communities, you have a strong selective pressure that would pave a way for modern compassion in human beings.
Thus explaining away theologic ethos.
Other Comments by moderndaythomas
43. Comment #169573 by the great teapot on April 26, 2008 at 10:22 am
yes 816No 319099
To their credit the poll is still on the webpage.
But,flying in the face of overwhelming odds and evidence is their favourite passtime.
Other Comments by the great teapot
44. Comment #169575 by the great teapot on April 26, 2008 at 10:31 am
Hang on,5000 votes have just been added in the last 5 minutes.
I smell a rat.
Someone isn't playing by the rules.
Shame on you.
Other Comments by the great teapot
45. Comment #169576 by huzonfurst on April 26, 2008 at 10:34 am
Vaal, that's perfect! But how do you know it hasn't already happened? On the other hand, would an advanced version of humanity be able to allow all that suffering to occur?Btw, everyone seems to be looking at the near-extinction of our species from only our own perspective. I suspect if there was a poll of all other life forms they would consider it a disaster that we *didn't* go extinct.
Speaking of polls, expelledthemovement (what human function does that remind us of?) never finishes loading on my poor dialup connection. Is it full of fancy, pointless graphics like a great many other sites, including unfortunately this one?
Other Comments by huzonfurst
46. Comment #169583 by Prom_STar on April 26, 2008 at 10:58 am
Why did they have to use the word "Eve"? (Because it's a literary reference, but still.) A fundie who reads this will only see that one word and respond "Ha! Science proves the Bible again." We can then expect the Hittite incident to be rammed down our throats again.Creationists aside, this discovery is fascinating. I wish the article went more in depth on the genetic analysis used to determine this.
Other Comments by Prom_STar
47. Comment #169714 by Tagred on April 26, 2008 at 4:15 pm
Time scales seem a bit short for me for the "out of africa" movement, but then im trained in geology, so we usually take a longer term view of things.Meh, 70k yrs, thats like 5 minutes :oP
Other Comments by Tagred
48. Comment #169785 by dragonfirematrix on April 26, 2008 at 7:54 pm
Before the Christians go off cheering and screaming about the "Eve" thing, let us not allow the Christians to forget that there are mulitiple races on this planet, which tells me (at least) the "Adam and Eve" stories are just a bunch of GD religious BS.I thank my mom and dad for not living in, or coming from Kansas.
On a side note...
...are not the religious on Earth working overtime, every day, trying to make us all extinct, with war after war after war.
Other Comments by dragonfirematrix
49. Comment #173458 by Robert Carnegie on April 30, 2008 at 7:31 pm
By the way isn't it 6,010 years now? Keep the count running, mess with their heads.You heard the joke about the dinosaur skeleton dated 65,000,003 years old, of course. But this really is different. The present generation has survived Y2K -and- Y6K.
Other Comments by Robert Carnegie
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1. Comment #168459 by JesperB on April 25, 2008 at 6:52 am
Hm, thats rather old news. The near-extinction event has been linked to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toba_catastrophe_theory10 years ago.
Interesting stuff, none the less.
Other Comments by JesperB