We were on the brink of extinction: humanity was nearly wiped out.

Scientists have repeatedly warned that climate change could wipe out humanity on Earth. Now, there is compelling evidence that this has happened before, nearly 900,000 years ago. At that time, early humans were on the brink of extinction, with their population dwindling to just 1,280 individuals.

Humanity Nearly Disappeared Due to Cooling

A new study reveals that the human race was almost obliterated as a severe cooling period approached in Earth’s history, known as the Middle Pleistocene. According to researchers, this was a serious “critical threshold” that lasted more than 100,000 years and posed a significant threat to the future of humanity.

A team of Chinese researchers developed a model that examines contemporary gene lines and uses them to estimate past population sizes. They applied their model to analyze the DNA of 3,154 modern humans from both African and non-African populations.

Their findings indicate that around 900,000 years ago, only about 1,280 ancestors of modern humans were left to reproduce, and this situation persisted for 117,000 years. Experts estimate that nearly 99 percent of the population was lost at the onset of this critical period for humanity.

A New Perspective on Human Evolution

The population decline coincided with climate changes that led to prolonged glacial periods, a drop in sea surface temperatures, potential extended droughts, and the loss of other species that could have served as food sources. It is believed that our last common ancestor with Neanderthals and another extinct human species (the Denisovans) also lived during this time.

Lead author of the study, Yi-Syuan Pan, tells the Daily Mail that their findings “open a new field in human evolution.” She also raises several questions, such as where these people lived, how they survived catastrophic climate changes, and whether natural selection accelerated the evolution of the human brain during this “critical period.”

Commenting on the study, British experts in human evolution—Nick Ashton and Chris Stringer—note that the results suggest our ancestors underwent a significant population change that began around 930,000 years ago and lasted nearly 120,000 years. It is estimated that this led to a reduction in the number of breeding individuals, bringing our ancestors close to extinction. Thus, this research highlights the vulnerability of early human populations, implying that the evolutionary line of humanity was nearly destroyed.