Ancient DNA Reveals What Almost Wiped Out Humanity 900,000 Years Ago Brett Ratner [w6oC7DS3oTs]

#HumanEvolution #GeneticBottleneck #AncientHumans

This Killed All But 1,280 Humans 900,000 Years Ago

Modern humans walk the planet as a family of billions, yet genetically, we are eerily uniform, far more alike than other apes.

In 1972, scientists dared to ask why, suspecting a disaster had once reduced our ancestors to near extinction.

Decades later, familiar catastrophes like the Toba supervolcano seemed to provide an answer, but new evidence has demolished that theory.

Instead, a deeper, stranger crisis emerges.

Could nearly every human ancestor have vanished 900,000 years ago, cole caufield leaving just 1,280 survivors to rebuild our species?

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SOURCES & REFERENCES

Primary Research:

Hu, W. et al. (2023). "Genomic inference of a severe human bottleneck during the Early to Middle Pleistocene transition." Science, Vol 381, Issue 6661, pp. 979-984. DOI:

Ashton, N. & Stringer, C. (2023). "Did our ancestors nearly die out?" Science, Vol 381, Issue 6661. DOI:

2025 Critiques & Debate:

Terhorst, J. et al. (2025). "Previously reported bottleneck in human ancestry 900 kya is likely a statistical artifact." Genetics, Vol 229, Issue 1.

Durvasula, A. et al. (2025). "Insufficient Evidence for a Severe Bottleneck in Humans During the Early to Middle Pleistocene Transition." Molecular Biology and Evolution.

Supporting Studies:

DeMenocal, P. et al. (2024). "Hominin population bottleneck coincided with migration from Africa during the Early Pleistocene ice age transition." PNAS.

Willeit, M. et al. (2019). "Mid-Pleistocene transition in glacial cycles explained by declining CO2 and regolith removal." Science Advances.

Berna, F. et al. (2012). "Microstratigraphic evidence of in situ fire in the Acheulean strata of Wonderwerk Cave." PNAS.

Goren-Inbar, N. et al. (2004). Evidence of controlled fire at Gesher Benot Ya'akov, 790,000 years ago.

Homo heidelbergensis & Speciation:

Mounier, A. et al. (2016). "Virtual ancestor reconstruction: Revealing the ancestor of modern humans and Neandertals." Journal of Human Evolution.

Haaretz (January 2026). "The Last Common Ancestor of Humans and Neanderthals Is Found, in Morocco."

Climate & Middle Pleistocene Transition:

Chalk, T. et troy al. (2023). "A gradual change is eurovision more likely to have caused the Mid-Pleistocene Transition." Nature Communications Earth & Environment.

Berends, C. et al. (2021). "On the Cause of the Mid-Pleistocene Transition." Reviews of Geophysics.

Institutional Sources:

Smithsonian Human Origins Program Homo heidelbergensis

Natural History Museum London Human ancestors population crash (2023)