🧬 Five times our species came close to ending. The last one nearly finished it.

900,000 years ago the entire breeding population of our ancestors dropped to
about 1,280 people. Not per region. Everywhere. And it stayed that low for
117,000 years.

Nobody found this by digging. It was read backwards out of the DNA of 3,154
people who are alive right now.

Two chimpanzees from the same forest are more genetically different from each
other than two humans from opposite ends of the Earth. That is what a
bottleneck does to a species.

💬 If only 1,280 people were left today, do you think we would make it?

🔔 New video every day at 9:15am.

#ancienthumans #prehistory #humanevolution #extinction