RE: Adam never met Eve

From: Marcio Pie (pie@bu.edu)
Date: Wed Nov 01 2000 - 14:32:14 EST

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    > > On the other hand, calculations by Francisco Ayala using the same
    > > coalescent theory suggested that the human effective population size
    > > (number of reproductively active individuals in a population)
    > > never became
    > > smaller than 50 individuals since the divergence from chimps. This is
    > > inconsistent with the idea of a very strong populational bottleneck with
    > > only one active female.
    >
    > No one ever believed that there was only one active female--even the
    > advocates of mtDNA Eve. She just happened to be the only one who left her
    > mtDNA to us. There was an entire population of women when mtDNA Eve was on
    > earth--she wasn't the first. She was a descendant of the real Eve. One can
    > see this effect in family names on Pitcairn Island. They started with 6
    > family names. Today, due to men not leaving male offspring, they are down to
    > 3 surnames in only 200 years. The y-chromosome structure on Pitcairn Island
    > would reflect this. They didn't start with 3 males, though the evidence
    > could not be used to prove the existence of the other 3.
    >

    If one believes in a literal *biblical* Eve, that would have been an
    instantaneous speciation event with would cause a severe populational
    bottleneck. That would have to be detectable using coalescent theory.

    Marcio



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