[{"command":"openDialog","selector":"#drupal-modal","settings":null,"data":"\u003Cdiv id=\u0022republish_modal_form\u0022\u003E\u003Cform class=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form ecl-form\u0022 data-drupal-selector=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 action=\u0022\/en\/article\/modal\/6149\u0022 method=\u0022post\u0022 id=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 accept-charset=\u0022UTF-8\u0022\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHorizon articles can be republished for free under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence.\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003EYou must give appropriate credit. We ask you to do this by:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 1) Using the original journalist\u0027s byline\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 2) Linking back to our original story\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 3) Using the following text in the footer: This article was originally published in \u003Ca href=\u0027#\u0027\u003EHorizon, the EU Research and Innovation magazine\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003ESee our full republication guidelines \u003Ca href=\u0027\/horizon-magazine\/republish-our-stories\u0027\u003Ehere\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003EHTML for this article, including the attribution and page view counter, is below:\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\u0022js-form-item form-item js-form-type-textarea form-item-body-content js-form-item-body-content ecl-form-group ecl-form-group--text-area form-no-label ecl-u-mv-m\u0022\u003E\n \n\u003Cdiv\u003E\n \u003Ctextarea data-drupal-selector=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 aria-describedby=\u0022edit-body-content--description\u0022 id=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 name=\u0022body_content\u0022 rows=\u00225\u0022 cols=\u002260\u0022 class=\u0022form-textarea ecl-text-area\u0022\u003E\u003Ch2\u003EIce-age Europeans roamed in small bands of fewer than 30, on brink of extinction\u003C\/h2\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn some cases, small bands of potentially as few as 20 to 30 people could have been moving over very large areas, over the whole of Europe as a single territory, according to Professor Ron Pinhasi, principal investigator on the EU-funded ADNABIOARC project.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThis demographic model is based on new evidence that suggests populations were much smaller than is generally thought to be a stable size for healthy reproduction, usually around 500 people. Such small groupings may have led to reduced fitness and even extinctions.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018As an archaeologist and anthropologist, I was quite shocked to see how limited, how small the population numbers were. You know, shockingly small,\u2019 said Prof. Pinhasi, based at University College Dublin, Ireland.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018I think that what happened, it\u2019s on a catastrophic level of demography for a long time in human evolution,\u2019 he said.\u003Cblockquote class=\u0022tw-text-center tw-text-blue tw-font-bold tw-text-2xl lg:tw-w-1\/2 tw-border-2 tw-border-blue tw-p-12 tw-my-8 lg:tw-m-12 lg:tw--ml-16 tw-float-left\u0022\u003E\n \u003Cspan class=\u0022tw-text-5xl tw-rotate-180\u0022\u003E\u201c\u003C\/span\u003E\n \u003Cp class=\u0022tw-font-serif tw-italic\u0022\u003E\u2018I was quite shocked to see how limited, how small the population numbers were. You know, shockingly small.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cfooter\u003E\n \u003Ccite class=\u0022tw-not-italic tw-font-normal tw-text-sm tw-text-black\u0022\u003EProfessor Ron Pinhasi, ADNABIOARC, University College Dublin, Ireland \u003C\/cite\u003E\n \u003C\/footer\u003E\n\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe impacts of this are significant for understanding the origins of many Europeans today, as it is forcing researchers to reconsider models of human expansion and colonisation of the continent, as well as our genetic ancestry.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBy analysing the genomes of human remains, the researchers are able to gather demographic data and clues to potential population sizes.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EProf. Pinhasi\u2019s team has found that the genomes sequenced from hunter-gatherers from Hungary and Switzerland between 14 000 to 7 500 years ago are very close to specimens from Denmark or Sweden from the same period.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThese findings suggest that genetic diversity between inhabitants of most of western and central Europe after the ice age was very limited, indicating a major demographic bottleneck triggered by human isolation and extinction during the ice age.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018We\u2019re starting to be able to reconstruct the actual dynamics of migrations and colonisation of the continent by modern humans and that\u2019s never been done before the genomic era,\u2019 explained Prof. Pinhasi.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHe believes that early humans crossed the continent in small groups that were cut off while the ice was at its peak, then successively dispersed and regrouped over thousands of years, with dwindling northern populations invigorated by humans arriving from the south, where the climate was better.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cfigure role=\u0022group\u0022 class=\u0022wysiwyg-video\u0022\u003E\n\u003Cimg alt=\u0022Population diversity in Europe did not change significantly until the arrival of farmers from the Near East, researchers say.\u0022 height=\u0022400\u0022 src=\u0022\/research-and-innovation\/sites\/default\/files\/hm\/Early-human-timeline.jpg\u0022 title=\u0022Population diversity in Europe did not change significantly until the arrival of farmers from the Near East, researchers say.\u0022 width=\u0022686\u0022\u003E\n\u003Cfigcaption class=\u0022tw-italic tw-mb-4\u0022\u003EPopulation diversity in Europe did not change significantly until the arrival of farmers from the Near East, researchers say.\u003C\/figcaption\u003E\n\u003C\/figure\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EPopulation diversity in Europe\u0026nbsp;did not change significantly until the arrival of farmers from the Near East, researchers say.\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHowever, he doesn\u2019t think there was necessarily regular contact between these groups. In fact, one impact of the research, he believes, is that we\u2019ll start to find more evidence of \u2018lineages\u2019 or ancestors that never made it into the modern gene pool because they died out.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018You see a real reduction in population numbers and diversity, so you see the few lineages that probably split or separated before the ice age, and then stayed isolated during the ice age,\u2019 he said. \u2018Some time after the ice age, they kind of re-emerge, or disperse, and get together, as we see new contributions to European lineages from Asia and in particular the Near East.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ELonely planet \u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAccording to Professor Graeme Barker, principal investigator on the EU-funded TRANS-NAP project at the University of Cambridge, UK, current research paints an increasingly complex picture of setbacks and failures, rather than a simple record of success.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHe is looking further back into human history to early human dispersals out of Africa.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EProf. Barker argues humans would have spread out over tens of thousands of years just as other species would have done.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018The way many people talk about out of Africa is as if humans set out with the Lonely Planet map in one hand. That makes no sense. Plants and animals would have expanded, humans would have expanded,\u2019 he said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018Much of what it meant to be modern human (our own species Homo sapiens) probably developed as part of the process of expansion into new environments,\u2019 he added.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhat is clear is that new genomic and archaeological data are only starting to help piece together the complicated fragments of the puzzle when it comes to our distant past.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/textarea\u003E\n\u003C\/div\u003E\n\n \u003Cdiv id=\u0022edit-body-content--description\u0022 class=\u0022ecl-help-block description\u0022\u003E\n Please copy the above code and embed it onto your website to republish.\n \u003C\/div\u003E\n \u003C\/div\u003E\n\u003Cinput autocomplete=\u0022off\u0022 data-drupal-selector=\u0022form-nmlj5kblgwsb6-lqdcilfxgpjedf3vbbgjfhivpbcq\u0022 type=\u0022hidden\u0022 name=\u0022form_build_id\u0022 value=\u0022form-_nmlJ5KBLgWSB6-LQDCiLFXGpJedF3vBBgjfhIVPBCQ\u0022 \/\u003E\n\u003Cinput data-drupal-selector=\u0022edit-modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 type=\u0022hidden\u0022 name=\u0022form_id\u0022 value=\u0022modal_form_example_modal_form\u0022 \/\u003E\n\u003C\/form\u003E\n\u003C\/div\u003E","dialogOptions":{"width":"800","modal":true,"title":"Republish this content"}}]