Bulgaria has known for some time that it has one of the most rapidly shrinking populations in the world, but the release this week of the preliminary results of a census demonstrate that the scale of the decline is more drastic than few could have expected.
Published in
, the new paper shows that the 45,000-year-old Bacho Kiro Cave people contributed genes to present-day people. “Surprisingly,” wrote the scientists, the bulk of these genes are to be found in modern day East Asia, and the Americas, while it was expected that these genes would be found in populations closer to where they lived, at the Bacho Kiro Cave in Europe.
Another skeleton was discovered in Bacho Kiro Cave dating to 35,000-year-ago, that was not related to the earlier people, and the researchers went so far as to say this person was “genetically distinct” from the cave’s earlier inhabitants. The scientists concluded that this genetic difference demonstrated the earliest history of modern humans in Europe “may have been tumultuous and involved population replacements.” One can only imagine that over 10,0000 years the population at any one cave would see hundreds of total overhauls.