Magnetic Reversals
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Evolutionary Leaps

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Perhaps Toba super-eruption didn't create genetic bottleneck

24 Feb 10 - Although some scholars speculate that the colossal Toba volcanic eruption of 74,000 years ago led to severe and wholesale environmental destruction, an Oxford-led research team says that some areas experienced a relatively rapid recovery after the event, with many forms of life surviving.

This interpretation is contrary to other research suggesting significant animal extinctions and genetic bottlenecks.

The team's conclusion came after studying stone tools, which they think were made by Homo sapiens, at a Pompeii-like excavation site in India.

The stone tools suggest "that human populations were present in India prior to 74,000 years ago, or about 15,000 years earlier than expected based on some genetic clocks," said project director Dr Michael Petraglia, Senior Research Fellow in the School of Archaeology at the University of Oxford.

"The fact that the Middle Palaeolithic tools of similar styles are found right before and after the Toba super-eruption, suggests that the people who survived the eruption were the same populations, using the same kinds of tools, says Dr Petraglia.

‘That is not to say that there were no ecological effects," said Petraglia. "We do have evidence that the ash temporarily disrupted vegetative communities and it certainly choked and polluted some fresh water sources, probably causing harm to wildlife and maybe even humans."

     I don't see how this proves that the eruption didn't nearly drive
     humanity to extinction. It wouldn't take all that many survivors
     to re-populate an area.

See entire article entitled
"'Pompeii-like' excavations tell us more about Toba super-eruption"
http://www.physorg.com/news186223140.html
Thanks to Benjamin Napier for this link
 

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Magnetic reversals  -  far more important than we realize