A study by the Genographic Project discovered that humankind nearly went extinct 70,000 years ago. Because of drought and famine, the number of early humans may have shrunk as low as 2,000, with small isolated groups of survivors banding together in Africa. These survivors of harsh environmental conditions then came back from the brink of extinction and expanded during the early Stone Age. Somehow scientists discovered all this through genetic research.

From CNN.com:

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.

Apparently Eastern Africa experienced severe droughts between 135,000 and 90,000 years ago that almost wiped humanity off the face of the earth. Now over 6.6 billion people live on it!

[CNN] [Genographic Project]

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