That Time Our Ancestors Almost Went Extinct

[@GSBarlev]

I've watched a few SF shows and films _(Battlestar Galactica,_ _The 100,_ _Interstellar)_ where calculating the number of distinct individuals needed to repopulate the human species is a major plot point. It's *wild* to think that our numbers nearly sunk below 1,000. Then again, IIRC all modern cheetahs descend from a population of *eight* individuals, so I guess it could have been worse.

[@jacquesbaker1557]

Some studies suggest it could have been as few as 4 cheetahs left.

[@aprildawnsunshine4326]

I think it just shows how misguided our ideas of evolution in relation to our selves has been. Genetic diversity gets pushed as the best option, but if not for a lack of such we wouldn't have fused those two DNA and maybe never mastered fire.

[@martianastronaut4917]

So Earth is basically just Space Alabama ???

[@I_suck-_-so_what]

@@GSBarlev All modern Mormans can be traced back to a few individuals. That's why they all look the same. 😂 Edit: modern, not moder

[@e-memers9441]

Wow

[@jamiecantwell7480]

Forest sometimes can catch fire, and lighting can cause fires as well. There must have been a very smart ancestor who just never gave up on getting that fire back when it went out because they remembered how wonderfully warm it was. That obsessed individual made the first fire starting technique. We my never know who they were, but we owe them everything we know. Cheers to whoever that was.

[@robgronotte1]

It was my great-great-grandpa. You're welcome!

[@evilsharkey8954]

They probably saved some fire from a natural wildfire and kept it going, likely even protecting it from rain using anything they could find, even trees (with potentially disastrous results).

[@donhoverson6348]

Pyromania was a survival characteristic.

[@durdleduc8520]

could have been multiple individuals, in different isolated populations, at different times. i think a lot about how many times we must have discovered farming.

[@baneverything5580]

Static & methane found in swampy areas is a quick way to create fire. Or flint to create a spark. I`ve done it with creek gravels and rotting, dry wood inside a hollow tree.

[@lovelykitty4425]

Thinking about how fire might have been the legitimate life line for our species during a harsh glacial period is really cool. Imagine a sort of perpetual fire (maybe years old) that had to be kept going durring the early stages when they knew it was important but had no super reliable way to re create it.

[@TheRogueX]

Pretty sure this is why some places have eternal flames as monuments or heirlooms of their culture. It could be an incredibly ancient cultural callback spanning eons that has gone through multiple changes in its origin story.

[@dombo813]

If that is true, it would have been an incredibly strong selection pressure in favour of intelligence. We might not be humans if not for that, and events like that.

[@kylerBD]

@@dombo813 I mean, we are the most intelligent creature on the planet so yeah, there was massive selection pressure for intelligence.

[@studiog2682]

There was a movie in 1981 about that - Quest For Fire.

[@BabakoSen]

I wonder if, through oral tradition, that history ended up preserved as the myth of Prometheus and similar stories from other cultures of humanity receiving fire from the gods.

[@jmacdo01]

That nail polish analogy was surprisingly helpful. Love SciShows ability to just make things so digestible and understandable

[@s9josh778]

It didn't work for me. I need it explained in layers of paint on my Harley's fuel tank. :D s/

[@ajchapeliere]

​@@s9josh778😂😂 Now you've got me wondering what the ratio of nail polish users to Harley owners is. Grade A sarcasm❤

[@daerdevvyl4314]

How long before the people show up complaining that layers of nail polish aren’t metric measurements? “Americans will measure things in nail polish layers before using a scientific measurement!”

[@pssurvivor]

yeah i just painted my nails today and the experience is still fresh in my mind so the analogy really clicked

[@NVKEERTHANA]

yes I wanted to comment the same thing !!!!!

[@simianfarmer]

I just gotta say that the map at 1:40 is entrancingly gorgeous in its simplicity. I paused and stared at that for several minutes. Love it!

[@gabor6259]

Australia was populated 65,000 years ago but New Zealand only 1,000 years ago? Mind blown.

[@C0lon0]

​@@gabor6259remember that Madagascar was settled about 2 thousands years ago, despite being close to the birth of humanity.

[@aramisortsbottcher8201]

​@@gabor6259 also it's crazy how we only fully settled our planet 1000y ago and now are at the beginning of space age. Maybe there will be people on Mars this century!

[@dgblitwin]

There is also some (limited, but promising) evidence that humans arrived in North America many thousands of years earlier, which is pretty amazing. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Sands_fossil_footprints

[@tiborbogi7457]

As far as I know from watching other YT channels (I am far from expert) that map is oversimplified. Out of Africa hypothesis is questioned by many scientist. Emergence of homo sapiens sapiens is far from straightforward evolution, interbreeding of our ancestors was omnipresent. Humans wandered in search for food constantly, on the way they may interbred with other homo or eat them or was eaten. Migration out of Africa wasn't single event. As far as I know, there is no fossil evidence where and when our species emerged.

[@grey4904]

Daydreaming about what could’ve been, it’s crazy how many alternate timelines could’ve come out of another hominin being the dominant species.

[@lolasdm6959]

they would just convergently evolve

[@walperstyle]

Negative self loathing internet dweller

[@grey4904]

@@lolasdm6959 Oh definitely, but there’d probably still be some notable differences in terms of appearance and adaptations. I also was speaking in terms of more “modern” development with the rise of agriculture, cultures, and societies. A world where Neanderthals, for example, reached the point where Sapiens would have around that time period. Would they develop agriculture and animal husbandry? How would they establish permanent settlements? What kinds of religions would they have? It’s definitely more of a philosophical question than a purely scientific one.

[@stereomachine]

they would probably be on phone-like devices scrolling their version of tiktok

[@upaya7178]

That would just mean that one of them would’ve had to evolve the same adaptations as us and we’d be right back where we are now😅

[@andrew1575]

They endured the coldest ice age that any human ancestor has ever endured and they did it WITHOUT fire? That is a level of badassery which one day I hope to achieve!

[@hrpdrp97]

When did he say they did it without fire? I thought fire was one of the reasons humans did survive the ice age, and theres evidence humans used it near the end of the ice age so i just assumed the start is linda what made fire become a tool for humans.

[@lenabreijer1311]

Remember they were in Africa. So colder and probably drier but no ice.

[@person8064]

​@@hrpdrp97 Humans started controlling fire at the end of the ice age, but what about the start? For a few ten thousands of years, they braved the ice age without any external heat source.

[@VoltasP]

​@@person8064 The small population that did survive, survived it by being where the ice wasn't. It was probably uncomfortable, but hardly the nuclear winter-type cold you're probably imagining.

[@MrGksarathy]

​@@VoltasPBut it still sucked extra hard because rhey were probably not super hairy and didn't have fire.

[@Lambda_Ovine]

if it's true that event forced our ancestors to make and control fire, can you imagine being the first hominid who discovered how to do a fire whenever needed? they probably were just concerned with getting some warmth for that night without knowing they single handedly saved the entire species

[@CharlesFVincent]

I imagine someone most likely went from gathered fire to starting a fire by mistake while working at carving or drilling a hole in a tool or artefact. They would have been living in a world where they had stones, bones, and wood for tools, and then realized they had just harnessed the lightning-volcano thing as soon as making a fire worked the second time.

[@firelunamoon]

Well done to our ancestors for surviving that disaster. It's remarkable to think that we are all descended from that tiny pool of super resilient and lucky people.

[@TD-np6ze]

When I watch shows like these, I feel more optimistic about humanity (I so often find myself in my later years, thinking about Mark Twain's later writings about how disgusted he was with humans!)

[@titaniadioxide6133]

I loved the nail polish comparison! My father pointed out that specific comparison as more relatable to women than most science communication tries to be, and I have to believe that was intentional. So yeah, thanks to SciShow for this simple show of inclusivity! I recently had to rewrite my company’s clean room procedures, and I made sure to represent folks that are often underrepresented in scientific fields. I made it clear that the company was responsible for providing hair ties and nail polish remover. That the company was responsible for providing plus-size and petite-size clean room gowns. I made uniforming/gowning procedures that accommodate hijabs, turbans, and beards, using clean room hoods and beard covers. I added clarifications on skirts and medical equipment, and how to handle medical ID jewelry. SciShow, I hope that your considerations will help make it so the gender, race, and religion gaps close, and the post-hoc work I had to do will be considered default.

[@geefreck]

Kids these days. Back in my day there was only ice to eat, ground was all eroded, and we always had to carry around 24 chromosomes

[@brokenrecord3523]

Uphill!

[@mariomario5234]

​@@brokenrecord3523Both ways!

[@MoonThuli]

You could interpret this as good news, because it means that species with just a thousand individuals on the verge of extinction have a chance to fully recover. Maybe one day we'll see rhinos and elephants spread all over africa and eurasia again like they did in antiquity.

[@llchapman1234]

As long as humans think that ivory fixes male impotence, then I very much doubt it. Human erections are, apparently, more important than entire species 😕

[@Avendesora]

If we get back down to four-digit human population numbers...

[@lolasdm6959]

Unless humans replace cows with them, not happening

[@hrpdrp97]

Unless humans either stop poaching, domesticate them, or extinct themselves first, its very unlikely to happen sadly. They are LARGE animals and large animals do not survive things like extinction events, climate change, or population dips as easily as smaller ones. Humans, are more like wolves in how population spreads, whereas elephants and rhinos are more likely to go extinct when population drops. Even through history its shown to be like this, the first to go are large carnivores then herbivores. Humans are not as large, and don't take as much time or energy to birth offspring in comparison. In the time one rhino takes to birth and rase one offspring, a human can have up to 8 children or even more, most humans choose to stop at 2-4 though. Sadly at this point, the only thing that could save their population, is humans, like i said at the start of this comment.

[@CortexNewsService]

Yeah, but it took 100,000 years

[@yeffwy]

I applaud SciShow for their ability to communicate their expertise and intelligence to others. That’s a really valuable skill. The nail painting metaphor is such an effective way of expressing the SNPs stuff. Thank y’all for doing this!

[@CrimsonCateye]

"Got extincted by erosion" is the most scientific thing I've ever heard

[@captain-poppleton]

stole it from hawking. probably.

[@kathrynmceachern9503]

What about, "Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation?" Stunningly scientific.

[@Timmycoo]

I'm pretty embarrassed our ancient ancestors were almost un-alived by erosion. But the super power of learning how to make fire saves the day! Who says being a pyro in science is a bad thing?

[@AILIT1]

Just 1000 people. That had to suck. If you knew somebody that was annoying you pretty much just had to deal with it. Now we've got all much freedom to say goodbye forever and get lost in the ocean of billions.

[@0topon]

I mean they didnt live all in a city. So you had communities with less than 50 individuals instead.

[@AILIT1]

​@@0topon that's the exact point. You really didn't have much to work with locally and if you decided to leave somehow it's not like you could point anywhere on the map and say, the weather is nice and there's plenty of people there. What you had is what you had.

[@aprildawnsunshine4326]

This freedom is actually really new and it coincides with a rise in loneliness, beginning of course with the most vulnerable of our species: the ones with higher needs. Now it's spread to nearly everyone, because everyone is annoying to some extent.

[@0topon]

@@AILIT1 Yeah youre right, in a sense this situation happens also today. If you live in a small village or encouter someone annoying in your school years you have to endure them for a few years.

[@justayoutuber1906]

But parking was great

[@amberdent651]

Survivorman (Les Stroud) has gone on record multiple times saying that cold is so much less survivable than hot. He prefers to be in the Amazon, sub-Saharan Africa, the jungles of SE Asia, etc than the northernmost parts of Alaska/Norway/Greenland because avoiding freezing to death is so freaking difficult without technology. That our ancestors needed to figure it out before fire? Insane.

[@DebTheDevastator]

People who say they "love" the cold have never been cold. They always have the same answer, put more layers on. No, that's not how it works. They get chilly outside and go into their heated houses, they turn on the stove and make a hot drink, put on a sweater, and are fine. Putting on a layer only works if you are able to go somewhere warm or already somewhat warm.

[@racheljensen1823]

So, our population was the size of a high school.... wow that's crazy....

[@therewillbecatswithgwenhwyfar]

My graduate class had 500+ in 1987.

[@justayoutuber1906]

World High

[@haroldmccarty1333]

My town has 1200. My local high school has like 400 and serves the entire county. Where do you live? 😂

[@Che8t]

Man, scishow has really upped their production value. I love the side angle jokes and the energy. Keep it up

[@AbeDillon]

You know how cockroaches are expected to survive a nuclear apocalypse because of how fast they can breed? Humans decided to take a different approach. We decided to walk upright (requiring narrow hips) and grow our brains by a factor of 2-3 AT THE SAME TIME. I don't know of any other species that takes so long to produce so few offspring with such a high risk to both the offspring and the mother. On top of that: the addolescent stage of human development is crazy long! It's kinda crazy that the big brain strategy worked at all.

[@_NEPO_]

Humans are roaches 🙏

[@masonjohnson4310]

They did the research on that and actually found plenty of critters more resilient than roaches. In a nuclear apocalypse, the simpler the organism, the better it'll do. So, Flies would probably beat out Cockroaches in an apocalypse. Those bastards are tenacious historically as well, since they also survived the KT disaster.

[@BalthorYT]

​@@masonjohnson4310Honestly, as much as they're terrible, I'd rather flies survived than roaches. Those are even terrribler-er.... wouldn't mind them going extinct now, without an apocalypse even.

[@TragoudistrosMPH]

It's not really their reproductive rate, but their physical resilience... nuclear because their cells divide when they molt, unlike our continually dividing cells. Nuclear radiation can impact us whenever but arthropods need it timed around when their cells are dividing. I don't know as much about the other favored cockroach survival factors 😅

[@uncletiggermclaren7592]

You ignore the most important point, the hands. You can have all the design credit you like, means nothing at all without an engineer, i.e. hands.

[@bvbxiong5791]

It all makes sense now. My grandfather had to walk 50 miles, uphill in the snow, to find a wife. There just wasn't any other Homo Erectus around and now I know why. Thank you SciShow!

[@45545videos]

Thank you for having proper subtitles!!

[@qwertyuiopgarth]

I think there is an excellent chance that those surviving H. Erectus were not all in one place. There are probably quite a few populations that were isolated for (several thousand?) years.

[@thekaxmax]

No-one's ever suggested they were all in one place.

[@glasses2926]

They couldnt have been too spread out though, since when the ice age hit, large latitudes of land were simply unliveable due to excessive cold or desertification, and we know they have to have been on the same continent, sharply limiting their longitudinal spread too. It's entirely possible all humans occupied a single geographical region, which may have been further enabled by only those who figured out fire surviving, meaning surviving humans from the bottleneck may have been centred within a nomadic clan's wandering distance of the few tribes that actually worked it out themselves.

[@dusseau13]

Great clear presentation for this 68.6 yo retired teacher.

[@bentucky4324]

What a fantastic episode. I learned so much and in such a quick, fun, and informative way. Thank you SciShow!

[@PaulADAigle]

That sounds like a great concept for computer modeling history. It could even be turned into a game with great graphics.

[@xizar0rg]

Meh. What kind of Civilization would spend time playing that?

[@Matias_SM]

@@xizar0rg It would Sidrtaintly make for a very entertaining gameplay

[@Delekhan]

Excellent video SciShow team! Thank you Hank and everyone else that helped film and produce this. We love you!

[@Kevin_Street]

That certainly suggests an incredible story. Our ancestors were slowly dying out in the greatest winter the species had ever known - then someone (and if the population was so low it may have been a single individual) discovers how to make fire, and saves us all, both in the past and our future. Maybe we owe our existence to one particular homo erectus or early modern genius who cracked the fire problem.

[@hrpdrp97]

Humans likely were useing fire already when the iceage hit, and its use was also more likely a simutanious invention than something that can be vredited to a single individual, considering humans were so spread thin, i dont think a single homo erectus would have saved over a thousand spread across all of europe with discovering fire, it would have only been one tribe/group that survived if it was only one who discovered fire, and we wouldnt be here talking if that was the case

[@bear576]

Prometheus

[@twistedtoast3538]

Love the nail polish comparison, cause it happened to me last night and it's really annoying having one nail with a bump on it and you know it's there and it just starts to get in your head and bug gou

[@dany_fg]

if I had a nickel every time humans almost went extinct, I’d have two, which isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it happened twice

[@anyascelticcreations]

"We almost got extincted by erosion. " 😂😂😂 Wordsmithing at its finest.

[@EliWurster]

Hank looks so cute with his curly and fluffy hair… it’s adorable 🥹

[@benjaminlamothe2093]

I find it crazy scary how global temperature often feels like a cruise ship on a tree top, too little carbon? Ice freeze albedo goes done glaciers expose new rock which absorbs more co2. Mean while to much carbon and ice melts albido increases clathrates melt and water enters the atmosphere it feels like we're at zero on a cubic function and tiny changes send us flying up or falling down

[@SynchronizorVideos]

Yeah, but keep in mind that that stuff happens over very long timescales compared to human lives.

[@masonjohnson4310]

@@SynchronizorVideos Like, hundreds of thousands of years long! Which is wild

[@rhael42]

​@@SynchronizorVideos and yet we can already see the direct effects of anthropogenic climate change

[@Six_Gorillion]

@@rhael42 lol. you literally cannot se any changes. The oceans are even cooling right now and climate grifters have no explanation. It's a scam.

[@UnionYes1021]

Excellent and fascinating episode. Thank you. I know making even a short video is a lot of work. Bravo. Go team human! I do think the ability to control fire is a necessary first step for any species to develop technology.

[@TheRogueX]

Tools are the first step in technology. Fire is just another tool. It is a VERY IMPORTANT tool necessary to advance though.

[@TragoudistrosMPH]

Aquatic species could never really do so, though 🤔 (Our) Metallurgy requires heat, though bioreactors could be alternative technology sources 🤔 Eons did a cool ep on fire being unique to earth, in our solar system!

[@screwthisin]

I chuckled at the sci show viewership quip

[@vlmellody51]

I was on Reddit the other day, and I read about someone who found a hominin fossil in his parents' travertine floor. The story went viral worldwide, and a team of paleoarcheologists now has that tile and several others in the lab being studied.

[@thaddeuszukowski4633]

As a trained evolutionsry biologist this show was extra fascinating to me. It suggests that our first realt big evolutionary change came from our overcomeing our fear of fire in favor of its benefits. We ecentually introduced our own first selective pressure. Then came diet changes, and lastly social changes, all of which shaped humanity today.

[@ikebeckman1074]

Last time I was this early, humanity was almost extinct

[@martin_from_sweden]

Nice one!

[@bensoncheung2801]

42 👍

[@hsdsaunders]

FYI humanity did not invent KZbin until VERY recently.

[@MaekarManastorm]

And still no one cares

[@badazzl5oc625]

@@hsdsaundersbro foreal 🙄 laugh a lil

[@apollion888]

Talk about a comeback! Hank is our favorite

[@_zurr]

That correction on the Toba event hypothesis pulled the rug out from under me lol. Now I have to go to all the people I parroted it to to fix it...

[@SaraMercer-v6i]

I wish I had teachers with at least a tenth of these people's energy and understanding of their subjects.

[@DannyBeans]

I've watched far too much CrashCourse, and was half expecting the "unless, of course" at 4:23 to be followed by "you are the Mongols." >MONGOLTAGE

[@chemistrydragon5641]

Yes! I thought that was coming too!

[@reppepper]

We are actually still in space, as I type.

[@therewillbecatswithgwenhwyfar]

Truth.

[@VictorbrineSC]

Yeah well two of these humans are stuck up there because Boeing is a shitty company lol

[@radiophodity]

5:43 | end of promotion intermission

[@e-memers9441]

Shame on you

[@e-memers9441]

Shame on you

[@sophroniel]

​@@e-memers9441 shame on YOU x2

[@trustthesauce]

🙏

[@danerule7326]

Awe you ruined the ending!!

[@hey_thatsmyname]

10:14 Thanks, Prometheus!

[@RobTheBirb]

I can’t believe SciShow is free

[@freyatilly]

Thank you. Very interesting look into our missing link variation.

[@moocowpong1]

You got me Hank, I was totally thinking of Toba

[@hoosierpioneer]

Hank continues to show me I'm not as smart as I think. So much went right over my head.

[@justayoutuber1906]

Stand up. Less will go over your head

[@hoosierpioneer]

@@justayoutuber1906 ☺️

[@letumetnihilum1511]

You are smart, you just know a bit more now about how the world works, than you did yesterday. Learning doesn't stop when we leave school, it's a life long activity, and life itself is a lesson as well.

[@ElbiAdajew]

Splendid episode. I love when mysteries buried in our DNA get uncovered

[@bramvanherck8567]

Humanity: we are incredibly lucky to have survived near extinction Humanity: 😊 the almost 900 species we have been confirmed to have driven to extinction:😦

[@tyvernoverlord5363]

Consider it our justly taken revenge

[@idlelordhelix9237]

Humanity Number 1!!1!!

[@AtechG35]

We should, as a species, just go into caves and die I guess.

[@kellyroper5256]

Humans surviving all the close calls is genuinely inspiring

[@simpletutorialsdaily1549]

It's fascinating to trace our survival and expansion from just 1300 individuals to over 8 billion humans on earth today.

[@NullRageGaming]

Dogs went to space first. Therefore Dogs are better than humans. RIP Laika, forever loved.

[@BirchTreeReborn]

It's so cool to think that we might have survived an extinction event because of the invention of fire. I think we should call all of the inventors of fire Prometheus for the sake of immortalizing the survivors of this event. Maybe we even just call that entire population of Homo Erectus *the Promethians* for having saved the species and thus the future through their invention?

[@DAMfoxygrampa]

1000 people is like half the size of my old highschool

[@caspenbee]

Kudos to whoever thought of the nail polish metaphor, it makes a lot of sense

[@obiwanjacobi]

Hard to imagine a world with only 100,000 'humans', let alone 21,000 'humans'...

[@nekot9274]

If we are the descendents of on a thousend people, then racism and xenophobia is even more BS as we truely are one big familly of a specie.

[@TueSorensen]

Very cool. A climatic selection pressure made our ancestors adapt to an ice age by starting to use fire. As Douglas Adams wrote, "The secret is to bang the rocks together, guys!" Hence, civilization.

[@davetoms1]

Absolutely loving the side camera ❤

[@kylemackinnon5696]

If i had a nickle for every time we almost went extinct id have 2 nickles, which isnt a lot but its wierd it happened twice.

[@unlike_and_dont_subscribe]

Way too many nickels for sure considering where they came from

[@ParadoxalDream]

It would be weird if it only happened twice.

[@rabbadoodles4522]

The second event was not true

[@maau5trap273]

I’d say that 1 is too many lol

[@benndanny12]

That was absolutely fascinating. Thank you.

[@XyzXyz-zk6jp]

Got it 40 minutes after it was upload... not bad!

[@dakota_kiwi]

I remember learning about this in my high school science class, such an insane part of our history

[@LogicalThinking-p2s]

Could deliberate acts to actions to preserve bodies after ☠️ mess up population elements

[@aprildawnsunshine4326]

I imagine that's taken into account, but also I believe there are a large number of measures used to calculate population aside from the number of specimens found. Though as we make more discoveries we often end up changing the numbers. As with much of history it's really only ever going to be a best guess

[@neilmarsh1904]

I usually scoff at "the So-&-Sos invented such-&-such," theories since things could have been independently discovered by multiple persons or groups multiple times. However, with just 1,000 or so of us, the harnessing of fire may have indeed been a discrete occurrence. I can't be the first person to think of this, so it must have a name. If not, I propose calling it "The Prometheus Event."

[@mojoneko8303]

How cold would it have been at the equator during that ice age? Seems like the most likely place to survive an ice age.

[@topilinkala1594]

As I understand it at the same time Africa was havingh major drought. If you think the amount of water stored in those northern ice-caps there cannot be much left to water Africa. Humans probably weathered that time on the northen shore of the Horn of Africa. There has been fossil founds there of human settlement during that period of time.

[@ColoradoSatellite]

I can't wait until you guys do a video on the Thunderstorm Generator.

[@TheDanEdwards]

0:25 "a thousand individuals standing"

[@Jman0163]

so, still few enough of us to number in only the thousands, if not exactly 1000.

[@hibbs1712]

​@@Jman0163right. OP is semantic

[@tatecore]

Even if you assume there were at least 5000 individuals living (not taking into account child-bearing age individuals) identical twins would make up

[@spamfilter32]

​@@tatecorethere is a yes and a no to this. Let's say, for example that there are 1000 women who share a unique mitochondrial DNA signature. If those 1000 women, each successive generation, half have only sons who reach reproductive age, in about 10 generations that unique mtDNA would disappear from human traces, but those 1000 women could still have living descendants today, but there would be no genetic traces of them in modern DNA samples. But they still lived and they still have living descendants. You can do the same with men and yDNA too. There could easily have been 10000 (or more) individuals where alive in the time frame in question who could have half a billion living descendants (or more) with no genetic evidence of them today.

[@neilkurzman4907]

So saying that there were other groups that did die out doesn’t make it any better

[@jdijkstra8115]

Also a humbling thought. So few left and such harsh conditions couldn't break the indomitable 'homanoid?' spirit. It's just so impressive. Survived ice ages and learned how to create fire! Horahh! Can't break this evolutionary branch!

[@chubletfletcher1462]

this person when they realise "the indomitable human spirit" is a myth and millions of other species have also survived these extinction events and are currently surviving the holocene extinction:

[@Lambda_Ovine]

my head canon: Mother Nature: "Actually... these hominids may get out of hand, they're just way too crafty... rather sadly, I think I'm going to have to undo them" Mother Nature shortly after "Wait, what are they doing? fire? Oh no, it's too late"

[@NurseMadDbee]

Love the nail polish analogy

[@loowick4074]

Man just this close and modern society wouldnt be a thing. Imagine if that happened to another species about to dominate but they couldnt pull through with the skin of their teeth

[@webx135]

Imagine us and this other species both survived by harnessing fire. Imagine if it were, like, parrots. Imagine hearing wings flapping, then a bunch of "squaaaawk!" and then they start dropping flaming sticks on everyone. We wouldn't have stood a chance.

[@pollyd8548]

I was literally trying to fix smudged nail polish during that analogy, I felt personally called out

[@dynamicworlds1]

Statistically, someone had to be.

[@joshuahillerup4290]

I wonder how valid the argument would be that that speciation event would be when our species actually started, and different groups like Neanderthals should be considered subspecies, not separate species of our own

[@dorongrossman-naples9207]

Some scientists do consider Neanderthals et al to be a subspecies of sapiens, though it's less popular now than it used to be.

[@joshuahillerup4290]

@@dorongrossman-naples9207 I wonder why it's becoming less popular. Newer evidence like lots of people today having some Neanderthal ancestry seems like it would push in the other direction

[@CortexNewsService]

​@@joshuahillerup4290I don't know. Would you consider domestic dogs a subspecies of wolves? They did come from wolves and can interbreed, but they are physically distinct and even have their own scientific name. It seems more like sibling species than subspecies

[@joshuahillerup4290]

@@CortexNewsService I would consider them to be the same species, but I agree that's not commonly defined that way for some reason

[@dorongrossman-naples9207]

@@joshuahillerup4290 the definition of species is pretty loose. As far as I can tell, it's determined by a fairly subjective evaluation on the part of biologists with expertise in the area. That expertise means they have a good idea of what traits make organisms qualitatively different, but it's still not too precise.

[@jonathanwells223]

“Why not call it ‘The Big Chill’ or ‘The Nippy Era’? All I’m saying is why do we got to call it an ‘Ice Age’?”

[@jeskoumm]

KZbin: “caption the SciShow ancestor extinction event“ Me: (a) “ _Humans Nearly Go Missing, Again!_ ” (b) “ _Africa Too Cold, Mass Migration, Fire Burns!_ ” (c) “ _Africa Empties Like Glaciers, Scientists Say!_ ” (d) “ _Wetter Desert On Other Side, Better T&A On Other Side!_ ”

[@assininecomment1630]

Whoops..!! 01:40 - That Early Human Migrations map is way, _waaayy out._ Some of those 'pathways' and approximate arrival times, were majorly updated nearly a decade ago. The illustrated migration of the ancestors of Polynesians peoples' ancestors, was replaced _TWO decades ago._

[@Goatcha_M]

There is another bottleneck at around 130,000 years ago btw. Which was even more dramatic. Also the first Modern Humans who migrated into Europe went extinct, that was some 50,000 years before the later permanent migration.

[@ahorrell]

As a New Zealander, I love the Pacific-centred map at 1:40

[@phillyphilly2095]

Hmm. I wonder if the genomes of other living primate species show the same population dip. Wouldn't the gorillas, chimp, and orangutans have also been affected by that ice age?

[@macaronsncheese9835]

Possible but not necessarily. All the other extant great apes are pretty tropical species, and the tropics have the advantage of getting extra sun that keeps them warmer. An ice age might've just not hit them as hard.

[@phillyphilly2095]

@@macaronsncheese9835 But wasn't homo erectus mainly tropical? Questions, questions, questions...

[@hrpdrp97]

​@@phillyphilly2095yes, that is why when that tropical area changed and got colder, their populations dropped, it didn't get cold all over the world though, there were still areas that were warm and barely effected by the ice age, and likely that's where other great ape ancestors lived

[@ebonyblack4563]

Just keep painting, just keep painting, just keep painting...

[@trueByakko]

Hang on, when those two chromosomes fused together for one of our ancestors, wouldn't that have made them genetically incompatible with their contemporaries? Thus resulting in a huge bottleneck effect that could skew a lot of this analysis?

[@techheck3358]

They would’ve still been able to breed - the same genes were there, just arranged differently

[@JoJoJet100]

It's so real to think about a couple thousand of our ancestors barely clinging onto existence, generation after generation, only reaching 21,000 individuals after literally hundreds of thousands of years of harsh survival. these people had cultures and lives and innumerable stories stretching lengths of time we can barely comprehend, now forever unknowable to us

[@eractum]

Time travelers: Nice, we took great care of the first near extinction event!

[@bambalaramba]

Watching this while putting polish on my nails 💅 it was a "wtf Frank, are you watching me?" Moment 😂

[@w0ttheh3ll]

7:45 100,000 individuals doesn't seem a like a whole lot to start with.

[@CortexNewsService]

That's actually the population for a lot of species. And while it isn't a lot compared to our 8 billion, it's still large enough for geographic and genetic variety

[@ZakTheFallen]

They lived without knowing how to make fire, comparatively that made them a very successful population, considering that most of them would die long before old age.

[@bbbenj]

Amazing! Thanks.

[@Rebar77_real]

The jury is still out on whether this many humans is a good thing...

[@hrpdrp97]

In the grand scheme of nature, there is no good or bad. Everything either has to adapt, or die, and humans are likely to cause their own downfall if they cant keep other humans in check, there will also be a great dying off of many other large species, but ultimately, life will adapt, and evolve as it always has. There's even microbes evolving to eat plastics in our oceans, what we once saw as a devastating destruction of nature has created a new niche and new lifeforms adapted to deal with the destruction. There are things humans have the capability of doing that would make life impossible, but its not nearly as likely as us just whipping ourselves out. Just look at every known mass extinction, even nearly all life on land and sea being whipped out didn't stop all life as we know it.

[@justayoutuber1906]

Well, it isn't sustainable.

[@jeffreysmith236]

So you are apparently unaware of the demographic collapse that must happen over the next 20 years. China, Russia, Europe and others will lose half their population. The only reason numbers are so high is the billions of people that didn't die around 70 years old but are pushing to 90 and 100.

[@jacobludwig4236]

I love how Hank ALWAYS finds a way to make us laugh while teaching us. "our SicShow views would be like REALLY low"

[@rayenessid]

Imagine going back in time and meeting the guy who literally invented fire

[@hrpdrp97]

Chances are it wasnt just one guy and was a simutanious invention that many groups figured out around the same time

[@mactallica9293]

​@hrpdrp97 no that's wrong. Someone clearly made a bic lighter first

[@justayoutuber1906]

Discovered or invented?

[@Anonymous-df8it]

@@justayoutuber1906 Probably learnt how to wield it; I'd be surprised if they didn't know what a fire was before then

[@owlcowl]

Why assume it was a guy as opposed to a gal? Yeah, i know thats being PC, and i really hate to be that guy, but....

[@zeddybear257]

I painted my toes for the beach the other day and this happened as it most often does. That ripple is still under there.

[@xevious1538]

The maximal Dinobot, sacrificed himself to save our species from extinction.

[@gavinjones]

Beast wars!!

[@lukeallan6527]

Tell my tale to all who would hear, tell it true. The good deeds and the bad...

[@elmurcis1]

Didn't expect to see Dinobot reference here - hero we didn't deserve but we needed most. "We" definitely started at that episode =))

[@TragoudistrosMPH]

I just found that on tubi lol. I look forward to finding that episode lol

[@ashlirabid9614]

I see you're a man of culture.

[@zoellazayce6796]

they clutched it up fr fr

[@hariseldon3786]

Your diagram (at 1:48) is incorrect - The Māori of New Zealand did not come from S.E. Asia via Indonesia, PNG and so on... The Māori came from Taiwan to places like Hawaii, then down through the Pacific Islands to NZ - a significantly different journey than that shown. One of their great achievements was the ability to sail the oceans not clinging coastally...

[@robocu4]

Where are you sourcing your information? No intention to contradict, i am just curious

[@hariseldon3786]

@@robocu4 No problem... this video will help - as a geneticist I am more up-to-date than even this video but suffice to say that the basic stock comes from Taiwan - there have been connection with the Melanesians but basically.... kzbin.info/www/bejne/l5nJgZV6gamoaZo In summary, I read very widely and watch a lot of videos and weight the evidence... oh, and a close relative of mine is a leading Australian archeologist and anthropologist... we've even been excavating together lol

[@jonathonrobinson6081]

​​​​​@@robocu4Maori tikanga, linguistic and cultural similarities with Pacific peoples rather than Indonesians, and genetic research. There are other indicators that they took the Pacific path rather than the Indonesian path, like having sweet potatoes, or kumara, before they interacted with Europeans (sweet potato is native to South America).

[@DmytroHolub]

Thanks for your job!

[@CH4OffsetsLLC]

Any research about ancient leaders denying the climate was changing back then?

[@bk2pla]

If they had a similar reaction as now, I guarantee it

[@chubletfletcher1462]

thats a phenomenon thats only possible in a world where office workers exist

[@jamielancaster01]

Wow, we’re like roaches. We can survive anything.

[@Goatcha_M]

Not good how you just ignore Homo heidelbergensis, which is what emerged around 600,000 years ago and is the direct common ancestor of Modern Humans and Neanderthals. Erectus went extinct in Africa, evolved into heidelbergensis which had a larger brain and controlled use of fire. That is the speciation event you mentioned. Meanwhile erectus survived in east Asia until around 30,000 BP but that group was not part of our lineage.

[@confusedcabbage6578]

It's not exactly that simple unfortunately, H. heidelbergensis are pretty hotly debated at the moment. I don't know how the debate is in N. America but in Europe a lot of archaeologists are arguing H. heidelbergensis should be reclassified as early/archaic Neanderthals and recognised as an earlier Neanderthal lineage. This is particularly the case because of how European heidelbergensis were, and that they fall fairly comfortably on a morphological line towards Neanderthal features rather than similarity to us. The debate is far from over, but there is little ground to categorically say H. heidelbergensis are our direct ancestors.

[@Goatcha_M]

@@confusedcabbage6578 Personally I believe that with the genetic evidence that Modern Humans and Neanderthals successfully interbred on several occasions throughout time we should apply the same species logic that is applied to all present day creatures. Which means we are all subspecies of one overall species. Homo sapiens heidelbergensis, Homo sapiens neanderthalensis and Homo sapiens sapiens.

[@icollectstories5702]

#Suggested topic: The story, as I understand it, is that the production of modern fertilizers required a phosphate source, which was initially sourced from guano and bones. Bones were taken from slaughterhouses as well as graveyards, crypts, and catacombs. Later, it was found that coprolites were easier to mine. Currently, most phosphates are mined from sedimentary rock that contains the remains of ancient sea life. Has anyone assessed the loss of anthropological and paleontological data due to our production of man-made fertilizers? Also, is it reasonable to save astronaut poop off-earth for the production of rocket fuel?