The genetic inheritance of Homo sapiens sapiens, which evolved during the 7m years or so that separate us from our last common ancestor with chimpanzees and bonobos, equipped man to succeed as a hunter-gatherer.

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This body of water is some 7, 000km west of Toba in the East African Rift Valley, from where our Homo sapiens species emerged in the past 100, 000 years or so.

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Obviously, if there were no Homo sapiens, Sandy would have caused pretty much the same overwash, with or without warmer seas.

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Biodiversity may be the name of the game on Earth, but for many mammals, like Homo sapiens, there are also easily 1200 known pathogens that make us sick or kill us.

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