HUMANS CAME CLOSE TO EXTINCTION

"A new hypothesis about recent human evolution suggests that we came
very close to extinction because of a "volcanic winter" that occurred
71,000 years ago. Some scientists estimate that there may have been as
few as 15,000 humans alive at one time. The volcanic winter lasted about
six years. It was followed by 1,000 years of the coldest Ice Age on
record."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/166869.stm

Dr Richard Knight
Co-ordinator: National Information Society Learnerships - Ecological
Informatics
Department of Biodiversity and Conservation Biology
University of the Western Cape
Private Bag X17
Bellville 7535

Phone 27 + 21 + 959 3940
Fax 27 + 21 + 959 1237

Email Rknight@uwc.ac.za

Web http://nisl.uwc.ac.za