What Was Dating Like 50,000 Years Ago?

You swipe through strangers on an app to find a date. Fifty thousand years ago, finding a mate meant risking a brutal death in the dark. Back then, your entire dating pool was just the thirty people sitting around your campfire. If no one there was a match, you faced a terrifying choice. You either stayed home and risked the genetic collapse of your bloodline, or walked alone into the frozen wilderness to find someone new. Where the evidence is thin, the video says so. Claims are flagged as known, likely, or uncertain. In this video: The brutal choice of the early dating pool Why the Altai Neanderthals vanished The genetic cost of staying by the fire What ancient teeth reveal about who left home Walking alone through predator territory for love Sources: Denisova 11 bone fragment discovery: Slon et al. 2018, Nature, Denisova 11 from Denisova Cave Ust-Ishim femur genetic analysis: Fu et al. 2014, Nature, Ust'-Ishim femur from western Siberia Genetics of human migration patterns: Sankararaman et al. 2012, PLoS Genetics Altai Neanderthal inbreeding DNA evidence: Prüfer et al. 2014, Nature, Altai Neanderthal toe bone from Denisova Cave Strontium isotopes in hominin teeth: Copeland et al. 2011, Nature, Sterkfontein and Swartkrans strontium isotope study Denisova Cave bone fragment analysis: Brown et al. 2016, Scientific Reports, Denisova Cave bone fragment DC1227 Drafting the early Neanderthal genome: Green et al. 2010, Science, A draft sequence of the Neandertal genome More on this: ancient humans what was dating like, how ancient humans handled what was dating like, ancient humans explained, early humans, prehistory, human evolution, ancient humans.