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A team of scientists say they've found evidence that early human ancestors went through a "prolonged, severe bottleneck" in which ~1,280 individuals capable of reproducing were able to sustain a population for about 117,000 years.
A global population maintained by only 1280 people? That's the size of a slightly larger-than-average high school. It's mind-boggling that they managed not to die out over 117,000 years.
EurekAlert!Early ancestral bottleneck could’ve spelled the end for modern humansAn unexplained gap in the African/Eurasian fossil record may now be explained thanks to a team of researchers from China, Italy and the United States. Using a novel method called FitCoal (fast infinitesimal time coalescent process), the researchers were able to accurately determine demographic inferences by using modern-day human genome samples from 3,154 individuals. These findings indicate that early human ancestors went through a prolonged, severe bottleneck in which approximately 1,280 breeding individuals were able to sustain a population for about 117,000 years. While this research has illuminated some aspects of early to middle Pleistocene ancestors, there are many more questions to be answered since uncovering this information.
I read that story a few days ago and was really intrigued by it. We think so highly of ourselves and yet we haven’t been here very long and might not be here for much longer.