A new study suggests human ancestors nearly went extinct some 930,000 years ago. Scientists in China used modern human genomes to estimate what past populations may have looked like. It turns out our human ancestors may have faced a near miss that could have changed everything. Scientists in China last week released the results of a study that used current human genomes to make predictions about populations in the past. They found that something — perhaps an ancient climate crisis, they suggest — caused the population of human ancestors to drop drastically.

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Persons: —, Wangjie Hu, Nick Ashton Organizations: Service, Scientists, Icahn, of Medicine, New York Times, Africa —, Times Locations: China, Wall, Silicon, New, Mount, Africa, —, Europe, Asia