Bronnen bij De toekomst: historisch uitsterven

Uit: www.cnn.com, 24-04-2008.

Humans nearly wiped out 70,000 years ago, study says

Drought in Africa reduced population into small, isolated groups, study says | Separate study says number of humans may have fallen to 2,000 | Analysis: Humans banded together again in Stone Age, increased in numbers | Migrations out of Africa appear to have begun about 60,000 years ago

Human beings may have had a brush with extinction 70,000 years ago, an extensive genetic study suggests.
    The human population at that time was reduced to small isolated groups in Africa, apparently because of drought, according to an analysis released Thursday.
    The report notes that a separate study by researchers at Stanford University estimated the number of early humans may have shrunk as low as 2,000 before numbers began to expand again in the early Stone Age.
    "This study illustrates the extraordinary power of genetics to reveal insights into some of the key events in our species' history," Spencer Wells, National Geographic Society explorer in residence, said in a statement.
    "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."
    Wells is director of the Genographic Project, launched in 2005 to study anthropology using genetics. The report was published in the American Journal of Human Genetics.
    Previous studies using mitochondrial DNA -- which is passed down through mothers -- have traced modern humans to a single "mitochondrial Eve," who lived in Africa about 200,000 years ago.
    The migrations of humans out of Africa to populate the rest of the world appear to have begun about 60,000 years ago, but little has been known about humans between Eve and that dispersal.
    The new study looks at the mitochondrial DNA of the Khoi and San people in South Africa, who appear to have diverged from other people between 90,000 and 150,000 years ago.   ...
    Eastern Africa experienced a series of severe droughts between 135,000 and 90,000 years ago, and researchers said this climatological shift may have contributed to the population changes, dividing into small, isolated groups that developed independently.   ...

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