pevaquark
November 26, 2018, 4:42am
15
Looking at a 648 bp region.
Given that no studies have found positive evidence for a bottleneck so recent I’m not sure what actually needs to be done (with a nice summary of the tip of the iceberg regarding evidence given by @swamidass ):
Reference this thread with [DOI] , reference the main thread to which this refers with [DOI] .
Do “Humans” arise from a single couple?
It is a deceptively simple question, with a great deal of subtlety. Some claim “no,” with certainty approach that of our certainty that the sun is the center of the solar system: “heliocentric certainty.”
This, however, is a subtle question. Most important to be careful about is the equivocation between genetics and genealogy, which does arise here (see TMRCA vs. TMR4A). More significantly, we find that all “humans” do descend each individually from many single couples (see the Genealogical Adam ). That, however, is a conversation for another day.
Instead, here, I wanted to focus on understanding why scientists are convinced our ancestors arise as a population that never dips down to a single couple. What is the evidence behind that finding? What are its limits? How strong is that case? Most of my work takes this for granted, but it is worth pressing …
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