Re: Hominid Inbreeding And The Bottleneck

From: Val Lentz (vlentz_at_shaw.ca)
Date: 01/29/05 

Date: Sat, 29 Jan 2005 02:18:32 GMT

"Kaz" <KazVorpal@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:pozKd.16125$cc7.7192@fe07.lga...
> "Rich Travsky" <traRvEsky@hotmMOVEail.com> wrote in message
> news:41F7C275.216ACABF@hotmMOVEail.com...
> >
> > The researchers believe the high rate of mutations is seen because
> > the hominid ancestor to both species went through an evolutionary
> > bottleneck, when its breeding population was limited to only about
> > 10,000 individuals.
> >
> > This meant that the process of pruning out damaging mutations via
> > natural selection of the fittest mates was more difficult and slower.
> > In contrast, rats and mice have descended from a much larger
> > population, leaving them less susceptible to genetic diseases.
>
> Couldn't most of the difference actually be explained by humans being
> intelligent, social, and tool-using, so that a negative genetic trait is
not
> as likely to prevent reproduction?
>
> A myopic rat is at a huge disadvantage. But even two million years ago a
> myopic human could get by just fine, as long as he was socially skilled.
The
> members of his family could support him. And even beyond what a myopic
> meerkat or other social animal might enjoy, because if faced with a
predator
> he still could hold a spear, faced with a reduced food supply he still had
> fire (which makes many otherwise-inedible things at least tolerable).
>
> I see a lot of oddly global statements made, based on some genetic trend,
> which seem to ignore all other possible factors that could contribute to
> producing such an effect.
>
All of that would really be fine, if they weren't talking about a time
period >6 mya where the animals in question didn't have tools or fire and
all that... You know, the ancestor to *both* chimps and humans...

Val

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Request
    ... > What is the source information for chromosome fission or fusion? ... if the last common ancestor ... to humans after the human-chimp split. ... > that all possible mutations have equal probability of selection, ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: Non-random mutation of the genome from apes to humans
    ... Project/the Chimpanzee Genome Project) but appear to be genuine. ... genetic differences between humans and chimps. ... Now of course 67 mutations in the human genome which is 3billion base ... if natural selection is acting on them. ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: What makes us human?
    ... Chimps and humans each have about three billion nucleotides in their ... The discovery of genes ... preserves favourable mutations. ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: Tom Bethell is Heroically Confused Again
    ... That depends on what is brown, ... Plus any mutations that create new traits. ... Teaching evolution is not a religious tenet. ... doesn't say that humans are not the result of an act of God. ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: Non-random mutation of the genome from apes to humans
    ... Project/the Chimpanzee Genome Project) but appear to be genuine. ... genetic differences between humans and chimps. ... Let us assume that the differences from the shared ape ancestor for ... You probably have that many mutations, ...
    (talk.origins)