Name: The Times Humans Almost Went Extinct! 💀
Uploaded: 2026-02-04T17:16:19.000Z
Duration: 3 min 15 s
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Participle clauses

Humans, also known as Homo sapiens, have been around for about 300,000 years.

Adverbs of degree

In that time, they have greatly expanded both their territory and number.

But life on Earth hasn't always been easy.

And there were some close calls along the way where humans almost went extinct.

You guys are the only ones that watch my videos.

I tried to get a bunch of alpacas to watch, but they didn't understand what I was saying.

Things haven't always been smooth sailing for you fleshy monsters.

Humans definitely had some rough patches in the past.

One of those took place about 190,000 years ago, when the Earth entered a glacial stage.

During this time, most of the world became cold and dry, leading to the formation not only of glaciers, but

This lasted for about 60,000 years, which is about how long we'll have to wait for the next Stranger Things season.

As habitable areas shrank, so did the human population.

Some geneticists estimate that the breeding population, or the number of humans that are capable of reproducing, dropped from about 10,000 to just 600.

Many of them lived on the southern coast of Africa, where there were lots of plants full of carbohydrates, shellfish rich in protein, and

This group seemed to have thrived, while one of their members is who scientists refer to as human's mitochondrial Eve.

This is the woman who all humans alive today can trace their mitochondrial DNA back to making her their common ancestor.

Since then, genetic mutations and variations have stacked up along the way, which scientists use to map lineages.

While studying these, researchers found that, compared to other animals, humans actually don't have a lot of genetic differences between them.

And they believe this is the result of yet another dramatic drop in population size.

This one is thought to have taken place about 70,000 years ago, when only an estimated 2,000 humans were alive.

But there is some debate over what caused this.

Older theories attribute it to the eruption of Mount Toba in Indonesia, which unleashed 2,800 cubic kilometers of ash and lava, blocking the sun and causing an ice age.

However, studies have found mounting evidence that humans actually weren't too affected by this.

One even claimed that humans in South Africa thrived through the eruption period.

Whatever the cause, human populations have clearly recovered.

Actually, that's a bit of an understatement.

Their population reached 1 million about 12,000 years ago, and

they're currently projected to hit 8 billion in 2023.

You humans sure are resilient, but I appreciate you sticking around.

I wouldn't be able to live in my world without you.

So what do you want me to talk about next?

I'm picking questions for future Dear Blocko episodes.

Ask away in the comments, and don't forget to use the hashtag dearblocko so I can find it.

Click here to watch this video on living until the age of 200 or click here to watch this video.

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