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ENORMOUS IMPACT. “The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 75 to 200 million people in Eurasia and peaking in Europe in the years 1346–1353. In total, the plague may have reduced the world population from an estimated 450 million down to 350–375 million in the 14th century. The world population as a whole did not recover to pre-plague levels until the 17th century. The plague recurred occasionally in Europe until the 19th century.” https://lnkd.in/gjdinF2 View in LinkedIn

TURNING POINT. “The Black Death was not only one of the greatest disasters in European history, but it was also one of the most defining moments in world history.” https://lnkd.in/gSKiQpE View in LinkedIn

“THE BLACK DEATH of 1348-49 was the greatest biomedical disaster in European and possibly world history”. https://lnkd.in/gSKiQpE View in LinkedIn

PRE-PLAGUE EUROPE. “At the beginning of the 14th century, Europe was in the midst of a revitalization. The agricultural revolution had made food more plentiful than before. More land was being cultivated and life was more optimistic than it had been for centuries. Despite a famine from 1315-1317 and the onset of the Hundred Year’s War, the 14th century continued to be a time of growth in Europe. This growth came to an end in 1347 though, with the emergence of the Black Death.” https://lnkd.in/gSKiQpE View in LinkedIn

PRE- AND POST-PLAGUE. “Given that the mortality associated with the Black Death was extraordinarily high and selective, the medieval epidemic might have powerfully shaped patterns of health and demography in the surviving population, producing a post-Black Death population that differed in many significant ways, at least over the short term, from the population that existed just before the epidemic.” https://lnkd.in/g2FqTm7 View in LinkedIn

SONG OF DARWIN. "The more I study nature, the more I become impressed […] that the contrivances and beautiful adaptations [acquired through natural selection] transcend in an incomparable degree [those] which the most fertile imagination of the most imaginative man could suggest with unlimited time at his disposal." https://lnkd.in/eykUy37 View in LinkedIn

POSITIVE IMPACT OF DEPOPULATION. “With as much as half of the population dead, survivors in the post-plague era had more resources available to them. Historical documentation records an improvement in diet, especially among the poor.” https://lnkd.in/ggGWR4A View in LinkedIn

FRAGMENT FROM NATURE offers an historical snapshot of the rat flea derived bacterial bubonic plague that halved the European, Asian and African population in the mid-fourteenth century. It still exists today, and can be treated with antibiotics, with a 1-15% mortality rate. The Black Death had very profound social and cultural impacts on European society. It also partially protected the surviving population against later outbreaks. View in LinkedIn

GENETIC SELECTION BY PLAGUE. “The identification of the immune pathways and genetic variants that were specifically selected in Europe not only helps us to understand the evolutionary history of European populations, but also contributes to our understanding of the differences in susceptibility between European and other populations to modern human diseases.” https://lnkd.in/gcJ7VHH View in LinkedIn

SPECIATION QUESTIONS. "Models of adaptive speciation are typically concerned with demonstrating that it is possible for ecologically driven disruptive selection to lead to the evolution of assortative mating and hence speciation. However, disruptive selection could also lead to other forms of evolutionary diversification, including ecological sexual dimorphisms."" "DOI: 10.1111/j.0014-3820.2003.tb01489.x View in LinkedIn