Humans may have faced extinction one million

[Still Waters]

New genetic findings suggest that early humans living about one million years ago were extremely close to extinction.

The genetic evidence suggests that the effective population—an indicator of genetic diversity—of early human species back then, including Homo erectus, H. ergaster and archaic H. sapiens, was about 18,500 individuals (it is thought that modern humans evolved from H. erectus), says Lynn Jorde, a human geneticist at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.That figure translates into a total population of 55,500 individuals, tops.

One might assume that hominin numbers were expanding at that time as fossil evidence shows that members of our Homo genus were spreading across Africa, Asia and Europe, Jorde says. But the current study by Jorde and his colleagues suggests instead that the population and, thus its genetic diversity, faced a major setback about one million years ago.

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[brlesq1]

Gotta start somewhere, I guess.

[Oberon Delta]

And now 1.2 million years later we are pretty much destroying the planet. Is it a good thing we suvived extinction? Who really knows.

[Sardukar]

And now 1.2 million years later we are pretty much destroying the planet. Is it a good thing we suvived extinction? Who really knows.

And now 1.2 million years later we are the ONLY species on the planet capable of protecting all other life from natural disasters such as impact events.

[Mr Mojo Risin]

And now 1.2 million years later we are the ONLY species on the planet capable of protecting all other life from natural disasters such as impact events.

i hardly think that protecting against natural diasaters makes up for the loss of habitat and i don't recall the last time we stopped a hurricane or earthquake, but for almost being extinct the world was a much different place when we were getting started than it is now....

Edited January 23, 2010 by The Curious One

[shaka5]

And now 1.2 million years later we are the ONLY species on the planet capable of protecting all other life from natural disasters such as impact events.

i agree

[aquatus1]

And now 1.2 million years later we are pretty much destroying the planet. Is it a good thing we suvived extinction? Who really knows.

Being that we are the only species on Earth that recognizes its errors and takes action to both avoid and correct mistakes of the past, to say nothing of helping other animals from whom we gather little to no reward, I think we are doing pretty good.

[ShaunZero]

Being that we are the only species on Earth that recognizes its errors and takes action to both avoid and correct mistakes of the past, to say nothing of helping other animals from whom we gather little to no reward, I think we are doing pretty good.

Help some animals, slaughter others for meals. I can't say I disagree with it, because society has helped me enjoy my meat and my stomach won't allow me to think otherwise! I hate animal cruelty and would help nearly any animal avoid death if I had the chance, but hell if I'd give up my steaks! Though I think nearly all compassionate humans would contradict themselves in this sense.

Edited January 23, 2010 by ShaunZero

[Wickian]

Didn't we already have evidence to suggest our population bottle-necked at least decade ago?

[Paranormalcy]

The suspense is killing me: did we make it?

But seriously - okay, what is the big issue here - our species faced extinction... isn't that how it works? We obviously were "fit" and adapted and didn't extinctuinate, so.... ?

[Queen in the North]

The suspense is killing me: did we make it?

LMAO.

[Nerupe]

And a billion years ago pigeons didn't exist. Yet another mystery solved by the best and brightest, i wonder how many millions they spent reaching that impressive conclusion.

[TRUEYOUTRUEME]

Wow! You have to wonder if after inventing the internet, Al Gore went on to invent the time machine as well and went back in time a million years ago and saved us all.

Some how we made it.

It is amazing how some will take a story like this and claim it as evidence that we are in the same danger again today and even worse - we are killing the planet??? Get real!

[aquatus1]

Help some animals, slaughter others for meals.

All animals slaughter others for meals. We're the only ones that help others on a regular basis.

I can't say I disagree with it, because society has helped me enjoy my meat and my stomach won't allow me to think otherwise! I hate animal cruelty and would help nearly any animal avoid death if I had the chance, but hell if I'd give up my steaks! Though I think nearly all compassionate humans would contradict themselves in this sense.

Not sure what the contradiction is here. We are living the same way that all other animals live. Heck, we even faced extinction like pretty much all of them did at some point or another. That we developed a quality that no other animal has displayed doesn't mean we are required to give up any other.

[clare256]

Didn't we already have evidence to suggest our population bottle-necked at least decade ago?

yes

[Hans Dolbrook]

we face extinction every day in my book.one meteor or asteroid

could come out of nowhere,and cancel the party for mankind and most of the animals

on earth. we could also blow ourselves up rather easy .

each day could be our last.

[Mr Mojo Risin]

come to think of it i didn't know the human race had been around for 1.2 million yrs.....

[War Eagle]

New genetic findings suggest that early humans living about one million years ago were extremely close to extinction.

one million years later, who cares.

The genetic evidence suggests that the effective population—an indicator of genetic diversity—of early human species back then, including Homo erectus, H. ergaster and archaic H. sapiens, was about 18,500 individuals (it is thought that modern humans evolved from H. erectus), says Lynn Jorde, a human geneticist at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.That figure translates into a total population of 55,500 individuals, tops.

One might assume that hominin numbers were expanding at that time as fossil evidence shows that members of our Homo genus were spreading across Africa, Asia and Europe, Jorde says. But the current study by Jorde and his colleagues suggests instead that the population and, thus itsgenetic diversity, faced a major setback about one million years ago.

Now there's too many people too few human beings.

[J.B.]

We've faced a lot of extinctions. And beaten them all. We'll face down what's going on now, and a lot of us will survive no matter what. Never let the doom sayers tell ya otherwise, someone will survive, a bunch of someones. How many die will depend on how right the climatologists are, and what the rest of us do about it.

As for this article, It's just one of several saying humanity got kicked in the face by mother earth over and over again. She's a very abusive mother even when you're nice to her.

[Wyrdlight]

Well I was taught in geography that at one point the human popualtion dropped very low, the rough figure we were told was 5-20 thousand. That drastic reduction in the size of the gene pool was said to be the main cause of the lareg number of genetic disorders and high rate of cancer amongst human populations as opposed to other animal species.

[BaneSilvermoon]

Well I was taught in geography that at one point the human popualtion dropped very low, the rough figure we were told was 5-20 thousand. That drastic reduction in the size of the gene pool was said to be the main cause of the lareg number of genetic disorders and high rate of cancer amongst human populations as opposed to other animal species.

Did you just call me inbred!?

[Exterminator]

A Population bottleneck happened one million year ago...

It explains why human species is pretty uniform with less genetic variation.

And as people are saying that we are not harming the nature i.e we are not killing animals but helping them.

IMO we are helping the animals.. a lot. But the rate at which we are killing them is way higher. I read a news few days back that a poacher was caught with lots of hides of animals like tiger, wolf, jaguar,etc. He said he had been doing this business for many years and a lot of others are doing. They kill, they sell, they get money. That's their business.

There are countless others who are not caught yet. In almost every countries.

It's amazing what money can do, or should I say money can make people do.

But I am sure we won't let any species go to extinction as there will always be one couple getting fed allowed to mate behind the most intense security.

[BaneSilvermoon]

But I am sure we won't let any species go to extinction as there will always be one couple getting fed allowed to mate behind the most intense security.

One couple is far from enough. The point of the OP in this thread was saying that a number in the thousands was a low enough number to almost wipe us out as a species.....

A lack of genetic diversity will kill a species as easily as hunters will. There was a Thylacine conservation effort as well, clearly that wasn't enough. Or how about the Baiji river dolphin, estimated 400 in the wild in the 80s, now considered extinct.

I personally like the Javan Tiger example though. Maybe it's my Tiger bias, but in the early 1800s there were so many Javan Tigers they were considered a pest species. The last one seen alive was in 1972 and no signs of the animal have been spotted since the early 80s.

[MitsuharuSan]

It makes me sick how some human beings can be so... egocentric. Yeah, destroy everything, screw the planet and animals. We can, right? I mean, we are the center of the universe.

If you think that human beings leading to some species' extinction is natural selection... Sheesh. That's why everything's so f'd up nowadays. People just don't care anymore (and I'm not just talking about planet and animals here... People don't care about anything anymore. Love, sharing, ... you name it).

And no, I'm not an Al Gore follower, activist, humanitarian or whatever. I don't need an ideology to have a brain AND a heart.

[The_Griffin]

Not to worry eventually when Mother Earth has had enough of us she will reduce our numbers once again. It's silly to assume we as a species can stand up to her power with our technology.