A new study revealed that ancient humanity nearly went extinct around 900,000 years ago, when the world's population dwindled to about 1,280 individuals, according to the American website "CNN".

The analysis, published on August 31 in the journal "Science", relies on a model developed by a group of scientists residing in China, Italy, and the United States.

The model used genetic information from 3,154 current human genomes.

According to the study, about 98.7 percent of human ancestors were lost around 900,000 years ago. Researchers believe that the "population collapse" may be linked to a "gap in the fossil record, which perhaps led to the emergence of a new species of hominids".
In this regard, lead researcher Yi Hsuan Pan, an evolutionary and functional genomics scientist at East China Normal University (ECNU), stated: "The new discovery raises many questions, such as where these individuals lived, how they overcame climate changes, and whether natural selection accelerated the evolution of the human brain".

In addition, scientists suggested that the control of fires and extreme climatic conditions, along with a climate shift that became more conducive to human life, are all factors that may have contributed to the rapid population increase since about 813,000 years ago.

The computer model utilized the vast amount of information contained in the modern human genome to estimate population sizes at specific periods in the past. The team relied on genetic sequences from ten African groups and 40 non-African groups.