Although we often hear about the end of the world in the tabloids and on social media, unfortunately the following news comes from a very official source: A study has been published in the famous science magazine about the fact that humanity is on the verge of extinction. There was a point in our history when our survival was not at all certain, in fact, we faced complete extinction.
According to a study jointly written by American, Italian, and Chinese experts, 900,000 years ago, the human population declined so dramatically that only 1,280 reproductive individuals survived.
This means the loss of 98.7 percent of the former population, i.e. the human population has been brutally reduced.
And above all, This state of extinction has been going on for over 100,000 years, 117,000 years to be exact: That’s when the number of people started to increase more seriously again. All of this may have something to do with the discovery of the fire. Current research shows that, for example, 780,000 years ago, in the territory of present-day Israel, fire was first used for frying and cooking food.
This is how experts study the past
In the same study paper, an opinion article was published, describing the new discovery as provocative. But how did they arrive at the results just announced? Well, with hard work of course, but just to be clear: The genomes of thousands of people living today have been scanned and decoded. However, this was not enough, because the oldest human DNA samples are 400,000 years old, even more. computer modeling was required, Which, of course, was compared with the results currently available.
Meanwhile, Nick Ashton, curator of the British Museum, and researcher Chris Stringer – none of whom were involved in the preparation of the original study – find it important to stress in their opinion piece that the data just published still stands. It needs to be subjected to many tests and confirmed by many parties CNN.
