Human race nearly became extinct after world's population dropped to just 1,280

01 September 2023 , 20:39

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Known as the Middle Pleistocene, it lasted over 100,000 years and was a huge threat to humanity (Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)

The human race nearly became extinct when the population dropped to just 1,280.

Research suggests early humans were nearly wiped off the face of the Earth 900,000 years ago when the planet approached a severe cooling period. Known as the Middle Pleistocene, it lasted over 100,000 years and was a huge threat to humanity.

Scientists at East China Normal University created a model that could study modern gene lineages and use them to estimate population size. They then analysed the DNA of 3,154 modern humans from both African and non-African populations.

The results suggest there were only about 1,280 'breeding individuals' left, with this lasting for 117,000 years. Published in the journal Science, their findings estimate that nearly 99 per cent of our ancestral population was lost at the start of the 'bottleneck'.

This decline coincides with climate change with long periods of glaciation and a drop in sea surface temperatures. It's also possible there were long periods of drought and food. The period spans the time our last common ancestor, Neanderthals, as well as Denisovans, roamed the planet.

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Yi-Hsuan Pan, senior author of the study, said the findings 'open a new field in human evolution'. She said: "It evokes many questions such as the places where these individuals lived, how they overcame catastrophic climate changes, and whether natural selection during the bottleneck accelerated the evolution of the human brain."

Commenting on the study Nick Ashton and Chris Stringer, British experts on human evolution, said: "The results suggest that our ancestors suffered a severe population bottleneck that started around 930,000 years ago and lasted for almost 120,000 years.

"This is estimated to have reduced the number of breeding individuals to 1300, bringing our ancestors close to extinction. The provocative study brings the vulnerability of early human populations into focus, with the implication that our evolutionary lineage was nearly eradicated."

Hannah Kane