Humans re-united to fight extinction

AFP via. The Times of India ^ | 25 Apr 2008, 1932 hrs IST | AFP

[CarrotAndStick]

WASHINGTON: Human beings for 100,000 years lived in tiny, separate groups, facing harsh conditions that brought them to the brink of extinction, before they reunited and populated the world, genetic researchers in a study said on Thursday.

"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," said paleontologist Meave Leakey, of Stony Brook University, New York.

The genetic study examined for the first time the evolution of our species from its origins with "mitochondrial Eve," a female hominid who lived some 200,000 years ago, to the point of near extinction 70,000 years ago, when the human population dwindled to as little as 2,000.

After this dismal period, the human race expanded quickly all over the African continent and emigrated beyond its shores until it populated all the corners of the Earth.

The expansion marked the end of the Stone Age in Africa and the beginning of a cultural advancement that has led several archaeologists to consider it the start of modern man, with the advent of language and complex and abstract thought.

The migrations out of Africa are estimated to have begun some 60,000 years ago. But little was known about the human trajectory between Eve and that period.

Published in the American Journal of Human Genetics , the study analyzed the maternally-transmitted mitochondrial DNA of human populations in southern and eastern Africa who appear to have diverged from other groups 90,000 to 150,000 years ago.

The researchers said paleoclimatological data suggests that Eastern Africa went through a severe series of droughts between 135,000 and 90,000 years ago that may have contributed to population splits.

Tiny bands of early humans developed in isolation from each other for as much as half of our entire history as a species, explained the study's chief authors Doron Behar, a genographic associate researcher based at Rambam Medical Center, Haifa, Israel, and Saharon Rosset, of IBM T.J. Watson Research Center, New York and Tel Aviv University.

"It was only around 40,000 years ago that they became part of a single pan-African population, reunited after as much as 100,000 years apart," said Behar.

"This new study ... illustrates the extraordinary power of genetics to reveal insights into some of the key events in our species' history," said Spencer Wells, of the National Geographic Society.

"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," he added.

From a band of about 2,000 individuals, human beings have grown to a current population of about 6.6 billion.

[muawiyah]

Shoes.

Then bicycles.

Then drive in movies.

There's a logical progression here if you take a long term look.

[muawiyah]

In a little bit older version of Ma-Nu and the flood, there are, of course, a number of humans on board the boat, but most of the passengers are simply "sages" or "demigods" of a sort who understand all the arts and skills.

Once Ma-nu and his wife begin making babies, the sages pass along their knowledge then disappear back to Heaven.

So, yes, 7 personages, not all of them human though.

Do you have an "older version" than that?

[onewhowatches]

The BS meter just got pegged on that one. How would small groups of humans living across a large continent find eachother to “re-unite” 70K years ago? Cell phones??

Perhaps rather than scattered all over, a small group of humans survived in a few -- maybe just one -- protected areas.

[lonestar67]

Oh wait, maybe if we all re-unite today on Global warming we can avoid extinction again.

What a ridiculous subtext.

[buck jarret]

The mega-colossal eruption Mt Toba in Sumatra may have caused climate change about 70,000 years ago. Estimated 2800 cubic km of erupted material could have partially blocked the sun.

[antiRepublicrat]

Do you have an "older version" than that?

Sumerian Zi-ud-sura? There are something like 20 flood myths around the world.

[wendy1946]

The basic idea is that a bunch of apes got tired of living in trees and decided to start walking around on the African savannas on two legs and start acting civilized. That is, with 500+ lb predators running around all over the place, with the 500-lb predators making 45 mph on four legs while your best on two is around 15, and the predators can see in the dark and you can't. Oh, yeah, forgot the thing about proto-human infants screaming their heads off periodically like human infants and small children do, to let the predators know where the human groups were.

Neat theory, isn't it?

[Coyoteman]

The basic idea is that a bunch of apes got tired of living in trees and decided to start walking around on the African savannas on two legs and start acting civilized. That is, with 500+ lb predators running around all over the place, with the 500-lb predators making 45 mph on four legs while your best on two is around 15, and the predators can see in the dark and you can't. Oh, yeah, forgot the thing about proto-human infants screaming their heads off periodically like human infants and small children do, to let the predators know where the human groups were.

Neat theory, isn't it?

You must have a better one? Could you share it with us, please?

[blam]

Thanks. Posted here too.

Study Says Near Extinction Threatened People

[onewhowatches]

The basic idea is that a bunch of apes got tired of living in trees and decided to start walking around on the African savannas on two legs and start acting civilized. That is, with 500+ lb predators running around all over the place, with the 500-lb predators making 45 mph on four legs while your best on two is around 15, and the predators can see in the dark and you can't. Oh, yeah, forgot the thing about proto-human infants screaming their heads off periodically like human infants and small children do, to let the predators know where the human groups were.

Neat theory, isn't it?

Sounds about right to me. It's amazing what an advantage a little superior brainpower is.

[The Spirit Of Allegiance]

The BS meter just got pegged on that one. How would small groups of humans living across a large continent find each other to “re-unite” 70K years ago? Cell phones??

It turns out that this article is not about people uniting in holy matrimony to outbreed the deadly bubonicplanus plagueparenthood. Based strictly on Wendy's comment, the article, which I may or may not have read, may or may not touch on the autoevolution of the telecommunications system, which curiously displayed its own Intelligent Design aspects.

Astonishing, I know. You see, 72,000 years ago, seashells evolved spider-web-like cords to help keep them together in colonies. Then, 70,000 years ago humans discovered that they could be stretched and would carry sound, long before tin cans with string were invented.

Or something like that.

Maybe.

I wasn't there.

Neither were the evolutionists.

/sarcasm.






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[Radix]

Didn’t they have caves back then where men lived and mitochondrial trade was first invented just before the revolutionary wheel?

[The Spirit Of Allegiance]

The revolutionary wheel was invented sometime after the non-revolving wheel, or “rock” as it was originally called.

Rumor has it that a lightning strike created the Fire-stone Tire and Rubber Corporation and it was at that point that the wheels of commerce began to turn.

[Cheburashka]

The BS meter just got pegged on that one. How would small groups of humans living across a large continent find eachother to “re-unite” 70K years ago? Cell phones??

---

Singles bar.

[potlatch]

I kindof like Lady Jag's version of this, fits right in here, lol.

Post#584

HISTORY 101

[The Spirit Of Allegiance]

CLASSIC!!!

Conservatives are big-game hunters, rodeo cowboys, lumberjacks, construction workers, firemen, medical doctors, police officers, corporate executives, athletes, Marines, and generally anyone who works productively. Conservatives who own companies hire other conservatives who want to work for a living.

Liberals produce little or nothing. They like to govern the producers and decide what to do with the production. Liberals believe Europeans are more enlightened than Americans. That is why most of the liberals remained in Europe when conservatives were coming to America. They crept in after the Wild West was tamed and created a business of trying to get more for nothing.

[potlatch]

I am very familiar with “Conservatives”. I live in a mid -sized town in south Texas where people are....NORMAL!! LOL

[ASA Vet]

Wasted your music again huh?

[NewLand]

No hidden agenda here...nah. None, whatsoever.

[Lady Jag]

Amen.