Human Evolution - Is There a Superior Race?
What lies behind the mask
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The DNA - The Ultimate Common Denominator
The ultimate common denominator
Beyond the Skin is the Same Ancient Point of Origin
Beneath the skin is the same ancient biological origin.
1991 Pinatubo Eruption
1991 Mount Pinatubo eruption, Philippines.
U.S. Geological Survey/ Cascades Volcano
Observatory
Pinatubo Volcanic Ash Cloud Spread
Spread of the Mount Pinatubo volcanic ash cloud.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Lake Toba
Lake Toba, Sumatra, Indonesia. The lake is in
the caldera of a supervolcano./NASA Johnson
Space Center - Earth Sciences and Image
Analysis.STS056-107-118
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    Human Evolution and the Origin of Races: Is There a Superior Race?

  • The subject of human evolution is complex and lengthy. There are a number of competing theories within the scientific
    community that will continue to be debated for years to come. For the sake of discussion, one of the theories is briefly
    explored in this  section.

  • It is believed that a supervolcano called Mount Toba in Sumatra, Indonesia erupted with extreme ferocity some 70,000
    years ago.  According to the theory,  the explosion was so catastrophic that it spewed massive amounts of debris into the
    atmosphere, creating a thick blanket of ash and gases that blocked the sun for several years, thereby causing a volcanic winter
    that further plunged the already frozen planet into a deeper freeze.

  • The eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines in 1991 illustrates this global climate effect on a smaller scale. This
    particular eruption reduced the amount of solar radiation reaching the Earth's surface and lowered average global
    temperature by about 1 degree Fahrenheit (0.6 degree Celsius) for over a year.

  • On a cataclysmic scale, the Toba eruption is believed to have triggered not only a catastrophic volcanic winter but a massive
    and global ecological disaster as well. With solar radiation effectively blocked, global deforestation would have ensued,
    leading to food chain collapse,  famine and mass extinction.

  • It is believed that the event could have wiped out the existing human populations down to a mere thousand or perhaps ten
    thousand breeding pairs, thereby creating a population bottleneck.

  • A population bottleneck (or genetic bottleneck) is an evolutionary event characterized by a significant
    decline in the size of a population or species. Such events may be triggered by major biological or
    environmental mechanisms such as disease, famine, geologic upheavals, climatic crisis or any
    combination thereof. The end result is a steep drop in population size which could either recover or
    undergo extinction.

  • Thus if a normally large human population is decimated
    into a few surviving individuals, the pool of possible mates
    is significantly reduced, hence increasing inbreeding and
    decreasing genetic diversity in the gene pool.

  • The fact that all 7 billion human beings living today
    virtually have identical DNA suggests such a bottleneck
    in human evolution and a common recent ancestor.

  • The next question, therefore, would be where were
    these survivors located during and after the eruption?

  • Although the location would remain a  subject of debate, the most conceivable geographic region is Equatorial
    Africa.

  • Thus, along this line, one can argue that  all humans living today, despite obvious outward differences, are descended
    from the small bands of African survivors whose progeny would go on to repopulate the rest of the world.

  • The possible link between the supereruption and the
    apparent bottleneck was first suggested by Ann Gibbons in
    1993 in the October edition of Science. The idea promptly
    gained support later that year from Michael Rampino of
    New York University and Stephen Self of the University
    of Hawaii at Manoa. In 1998, Stanley H. Ambrose of the
    University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign further
    elaborated on the theory.

  • In a modern world  where bigotry still exists, the
    implications are quite ironic.

  • Hence the burning question that squarely points the gun at
    the theory: If we all came out of Africa, then why
    don't we all look more like Africans?

  • The plausible answers are explored in greater detail in the book's nineteenth chapter, One.


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