The Times Humans Almost Went Extinct! 💀

You humans have had some 𝗖𝗟𝗢𝗦𝗘 𝗖𝗔𝗟𝗟𝗦 way back when. Let's explore how lucky you guys really are!
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The Times Humans Almost Went Extinct! 💀

Script: How Lucky Have Humans Been?
Humans, also known as Homo Sapiens, have been around for about 300,000 years., In that time, they have greatly expanded both their territory and number. But life on Earth hasn't always been easy and there were some close calls along the way where humans almost went extinct.

I sure do love you humans. You guys are the only ones that watch my videos! I tried to get a bunch of alpacas to watch my videos but they didn’t understand what i was saying. Things haven’t always been smooth sailing for you guys. Humans definitely have had some rough patches in the past.

One of those took place about 190,000 years ago when the Earth entered a glacial stage. During this time, most of the world became cold and dry, leading to the formation not only of glaciers but of ice desserts as well. This lasted for about 60 thousand years. As habitable areas shrank, so did the human population. Some geneticists estimate that the breeding population, or the number of humans that are capable of reproducing, dropped from about 10,000 to just 600.

Many of them lived on the southern coast of Africa, where there were lots of plants full of carbohydrates, shellfish rich in protein, and warm ocean currents. And this group seemed to have thrived. One of their members is who scientists refer to as human’s mitochondrial Eve. This is the woman to whom all humans alive today can trace their mitochondrial DNA back to, making her their common ancestor.

Since then, genetic mutations and variations have stacked up along the way, which scientists use to map lineages. While studying these, researchers found that, compared to other animals, humans actually don't have a lot of genetic differences between them. And they believe this is the result of yet another dramatic drop in population size. This one is thought to have taken place about 70,000 years ago, when only an estimated 2,000 humans were alive. But there is some debate over what caused this. Older theories attribute it to the eruption of Mount Toba in Indonesia, which unleashed 2,800 cubic km of ash and lava, blocking the sun, and causing an ice age. However, studies have found mounting evidence that humans actually weren’t too affected by this., One even claimed that humans in South Africa thrived through the eruption period.

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Sources:
https://www.britannica.com/sto....ry/just-how-old-is-h
https://www.smithsonianmag.com..../science-nature/esse
http://www.lorraine-lisiecki.c....om/LR04_MISboundarie
https://gizmodo.com/close-call....s-three-times-when-t
https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/br....ianstewart/wp-conten
https://www.scientificamerican.....com/podcast/episode
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/p....mc/articles/PMC64268
https://www.scientificamerican.....com/podcast/episode
https://www.newscientist.com/a....rticle/mg22429904-50
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/sci....ence/nature/2975862.
https://www.britannica.com/place/Mount-Toba
https://www.npr.org/sections/k....rulwich/2012/10/22/1
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2013046118
https://www.nature.com/articles/nature25967.epdf?sharing_token=7X7tyXn55_7j67qf1R129NRgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0Of7Ck_7_L_gQLDajQTt9Uhbc5KyXGTyQhJAJ_5SVnIbIGAJx2ewoWIEE7OokmYSAjvqTvZnFujdYl4VhlpyTEQHCmyMJSEtuC0EcYYFYXNPSNJvYYzVlMqjG_3dOaA7RzOm8ID2GQU4mfgZ9z1AYTJfkhlBplzHtg8KvheO8Af5w%3D%3D&tracking_referrer=arstechnica.com
https://www.census.gov/data/ta....bles/time-series/dem
https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/

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