The key factor which separated man from our evolutionary rivals 100,000 years ago may not have been language – but instead a mysterious plague.
The plague ravaged populations of early humans in Africa, until just 5-10,000 were left.
But from that small population, humans emerged – and triumphed over other evolutionary cousins such as Neanderthals.
The bug attacked small infants and newborns, causing symptoms similar to sepsis or meningitis.
But surviving it seems to have conveyed a key advantage.
Soon afterwards, homo sapiens expanded dramatically in numbers, and spread all over the Earth.
I’ve also read the cause of the bottleneck was climate, which froze the planet so much it killed back wildlife, and the only humans who survived were a few hundred near the shore of Africa who were able to find enough shellfish to consume.
Of course the evidence of the plague could have been a sign of a previous r-strategy advantage, which is why H. sapiens was the hominid that spread over the globe. We know human r-strategists have less disgust. Imagine a human r-strategist, carrying in their GI tract a bacterial plague that they have survived, who has no disgust.
They migrate to a new land. They eat from the same utensils as their new hosts, they drink from the same sources of water, they defecate in the middle of camp and leave it there for the kids to play in. They are highly sexually driven and promiscuous. Pretty soon they would have killed back everyone in their new territory, and they would have free resource availability again. They would be a walking bioweapon, opening up free resources everywhere they migrated to.
Behind them would be the survivors, who once they had survived the plague were immune, and they would then begin the re-evolution of K.
But pity the poor Neanderthal who saw those pathetic, skinny, hippie monkeys begin to show up in his territory. As their numbers increased, between their explosive r-strategy reproductive rate, and their plague, he’d never stand a chance.
[…] Was A Plague The Cause Of The Genetic Bottleneck? […]
Off topic, but it appears the CIA is infested with rabbits. If true, I suspect ALL intel (and possibly gov’t) agencies are as well. https://vultureofcritique.wordpress.com/2017/03/22/in-addition-to-bronies-cia-is-staffed-by-transsexuals/
Wow. I suppose intel is often about acquiring an easy win by attaining a type of relative superiority where the enemy just dies without even knowing there was a fight, and actual combat is non-existent. That might appeal to a different class than infantry or Spec Ops, many of whom probably want the chaotic environment of battle.
I have to say, the nation is looking less and less like the America they tell you about.
“for the kids to play in”. Well there goes my lunch.
I don’t like the Out of Africa theory. #FakeAnthropology
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiregional_origin_of_modern_humans
Let’s celebrate k in a world gone w(r)ong.
Poor Thals.
The sentiments in this post, so similar to those a friend of mine has.
“But pity the poor Neanderthal who saw those pathetic, skinny, hippie monkeys begin to show up in his territory. ”
Misconception. They happily had sex with each other. We are the product.
My assumption is the r-Neanderthals had sex with them, just like would happen today. r is about spreading bet and mating with the weird looking outliers. I suspect there were Neanderthals who were K who viewed the homosapiens like sickly animals.
Black Death was a good thing overall, it may be weaponized by stupid terrorists. Syphilis made the West mad, supposedly it was brought back by Columbus and co. A lot of things line up with the madness of neurosyphilis, please look into it as a biologist.