But there are so many people I’d rather not be related to!
The next time you’re having a disagreement with a work colleague or annoying neighbour, bear this in mind: Chances are you’re related.
A new study of DNA patterns throughout the world suggests that North America was originally populated by no more than 70 people.
Most experts agree that, around 14,000 years ago, a group of humans crossed the land bridge that connected what is now Siberia in Russia with Alaska.
But new research has shown just how small that group was, venturing into a vast continent from Asia during the last Ice Age.
Up to now DNA analyses of the intrepid and original ‘founding fathers’ looked at a particular gene, using estimates and academic assumptions on constant population sizes over time.
The new study, by Professor Jody Hey, came at the subject from a different angle – looking at nine genomic regions to account for variations in single genes, and assuming that sizes of founding populations changed over time.
The next time you’re having a disagreement with a work colleague or annoying neighbour, bear this in mind: Chances are you’re related.
but only if you are both native american. if there were only 70 people crossing the land bridge 14,000 years ago, that would not have been the ancestors of people whose families came to north american in the past 300 years.
What snuzy said. Plus, the number 70 is those whose genes made it all the way through to the current generation. The original number will have been much larger than that. Many alleles go to extinction by genetic drift. The original number has to have been at least many hundreds, and probably a few thousand.
(And they’re not “founding fathers” ferchrissake. Ancestors, founding parents if you want, founders. Fathers by themselves would have all their genes go to extinction in exactly one generation.)
I find this a bit suspect since there’s significant evidence of multiple migrations both across the land bridge and over water, not to mention genetic tests showing that one group along Lake Erie has European mtDNA markers and one in Latin America has African mtDNA markers. Some genetic studies also show that the original migration was much earlier than 14,000 years ago. And of course, we have to consider the fact that 95% of the Native population was killed off by European diseases and acts of genocide, greatly limiting genetic diversity in the current population.
The study itself is problematic as he focused only on people who spoke Amerind. That’s kind of like studying the peopling of Europe by focusing only on those who speak French.