Anthropologists and geneticists from different countries have summarised the results of a major study of the human genome. They have studied the genomes of 3154 people from 50 different ethnic groups to compile a genetic chronology of these populations. And they found out a surprising thing: it turned out that about 900,000 years ago, the ancestors of modern humans were almost completely extinct – only 1.3 per cent of their population remained.
The mysterious event is undated, its time limits varying from 600,000 to 1,000,000 years ago. At that time, there was no “intelligent” man, nor were there any preconditions for his emergence. Human ancestors struggled to survive in a changeable climate, their total number was no more than 100,000 individuals.