[HN Gopher] Population collapse almost wiped out human ancestors...
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       Population collapse almost wiped out human ancestors, say
       scientists
        
       Author : bookofjoe
       Score  : 9 points
       Date   : 2023-08-31 21:21 UTC (1 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.theguardian.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.theguardian.com)
        
       | gumby wrote:
       | And, according to the article, it's not just lucky that we
       | survived that, but that very bottleneck could have itself
       | produced _H. Hiedelbergensis_ , and thus _H. Sapiens Sapiens._
       | 
       | Which also implies that while one remote group could have shrunk
       | to a colony of about 1,300 hominids and leading to us, elsewhere
       | other species of humans could have survived just fine for longer,
       | later dying out due to other exogenous pressure, perhaps from our
       | closer ancestors.
       | 
       | I have read that the world's cheetah are so genetically similar
       | that they appear to have suffered _two_ population bottlenecks,
       | the recent one being only 10-12Ky ago in which the population
       | might have shrunk as low as _30-40_ cheetahs.
        
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       (page generated 2023-08-31 23:02 UTC)