International researchers suggest that the descendants of the Black Death that consumed Europe during the first outbreak of the bubonic plague in the 14th century, are the source of subsequent repeated European plague outbreaks that followed in later centuries. Devastating waves of the bubonic plague re-emerged on the European continent over the next four centuries, killing hundreds of thousands, after the initial Black Death claimed the lives of about a fifth of the world’s population and in Europe it killed 30–60% of the populace. An estimated 75 to 200 million people died during the 1346–53 pandemic, the most devastating in history. An international team of researchers suggest that the plague remained hidden in the European continent and re-emerged several times to claim more lives. The pandemic strains which re-emerged were a direct descendant of the original Black Death and not divergent strains from Asia. Eurek Alert reports: The findings address the longstanding debate among scientists about whether or not the bacterium Yersinia pestis — responsible for the Black Death — remained within Europe for hundreds of years and was the principal cause of some of the worst re-emergences and subsequent plague epidemics in human history. Until now, some researchers believed repeated outbreaks [...]