Researchers Claim Humans Almost Went Extinct

Experts recently discovered Humans shrunk down to a mere 1,300 reproducing individuals, before Homo sapiens even evolved

Photo by Keith Hardy on Unsplash

This is a complicated time to be alive. We’re the most advanced and healthiest we’ve ever been, but we’re also undergoing unique transitions that challenge us in new ways. Global warming claims millions of lives annually, with the numbers expected to rise. Toss in global pandemics and lower birth rates, and people are understandably concerned about the consequences of a shrinking human population, especially when our entire global economy depends on population increase.

Around 8 billion Humans are alive today, but new research suggests that about 98.7 percent of the Human population disappeared around 900,000 years ago, leaving less than 1,300 Humans capable of reproducing. Notably, this bottleneck occurred about 500,000 years before our Homo sapien ancestors entered the picture. Meaning that while we dominate the world today, there was a time when we were almost wiped out before we even began.

The Pleistocene Epoch

Okay, so before I get to the study, let’s chat about the time period it relates to. It’s called the Pleistocene Epoch, a cooling period between about 1.9 million and…