00:03Around 900,000 years ago, before Homo sapiens or humans ever walked the Earth, our species' ancient ancestors were at
00:10a crossroads.
00:11At that time, climate change in the form of a rapidly cooling planet was threatening their very existence.
00:16And now researchers say they might know how they survived.
00:19According to a recent genome study, our ancestors almost died out completely,
00:23with researchers saying that their breeding population was reduced to only around 1,300 individuals.
00:28In modern day, they would be considered functionally extinct, yet they survived, and we might finally know why.
00:34Experts say that while many other species were dying out, our ancestors instead moved out of their natural habitat of
00:40Africa.
00:41Researchers found corroborating evidence suggesting that the cooling event and the migration occurred in tandem.
00:46The cooling would have made ocean levels shrink as much of our planet's water froze.
00:51That means Africa, the birthplace of our prehistoric ancestors, would have become extremely dry and arid.
00:56The evidence suggests this happened at the same time as the hominid population was brought to the brink.
01:01Only surviving because a few of our smarter ancestors decided to get out.
01:06There are a few years of coming through and out.
01:10There's no other small characters cared about.
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