Black Death Forged Hardier Descendants

The Black Death that struck Europe from 1347 to 1351 did not kill at random, because research on London skeletons found that it disproportionately killed frail people of all ages. People who survived the epidemic often lived longer than their pre-plague ancestors, with many reaching their 70s or 80s. So the Black Death powerfully shaped mortality patterns for generations after the epidemic ended, leaving descendants of survivors tougher than the population that came before.

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