The "Third Way"/EES and Population Genetics

[swamidass (S. Joshua Swamidass)]

@cwhenderson

Counting the number of mutation differences between chimpanzees and humans, then dividing by the number of years that separate us.

I’m displaying my ignorance here, but isn’t the number of years separating humans and chimps based on mutation rate and overall divergence in the first place? Time = “distance”/rate?

We can estimate separation time from the fossil record too. There are three variables. We can measure (or make an independent educated guess) for T, D and R separately now. With any two, we can make a prediction of the third.

[cwhenderson (Curtis Henderson)]

@swamidass

We can estimate separation time from the fossil record too.

Ah, that makes sense, thanks.