Bushmen

[Digit]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/s ... 031865.ece

In Europe and elsewhere populations underwent a series of “bottlenecks’” during ice ages but Africa conserved a large, stable population allowing an unprecedented accumulation of genetic variations.

So the Toba bottleneck did....er hum?

Roy.

[Minimalist]

Um...

Doesn't this...

The ability to retain a stable population in the same location for hundreds of thousands of years allowed the group to build up unprecedented genetic diversity.

seem backwards?

[Digit]

I noticed that as well Min, but yes, it does.

Roy.

[E.P. Grondine]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/s ... 031865.ece

In Europe and elsewhere populations underwent a series of “bottlenecks’” during ice ages but Africa conserved a large, stable population allowing an unprecedented accumulation of genetic variations.

So the Toba bottleneck did....er hum?

Roy.

some opinions:
The genetic studies right now are in their infancy. There are new, different, conflicting theories published as absolute facts by different teams nearly every other week. The teams findings are usually framed in the evolutionary concepts held by those in the institution in which they work.

The debates over out of Africa versus what we might call the "homo aquaticus" school are intense, with early SE Asian data usually ignored. That HSS evolved in a marine environment is dismissed by some as psuedo or crank archaeology. SE Asian palaeontologists hold different views, and set up their own forum for work.

What is kind of strange in all of this is that no one considers the role of massive impacts in hominid evolution or human diversity - splitting human populations into two separated parts.

While some are focusing on alleles, I've found mt DNA haplogroups to be pretty good for working purposes.

[Minimalist]

I noticed that as well Min, but yes, it does.

Roy.

Maybe Rokcet is right? Inbreeding is GOOD for people?

[Digit]

RS reckons it is bad for people Min. It's me, me, me, that has argued 'tother way.
(Gotta keep him on his toes Min.)

Roy.

[Rokcet Scientist]

Jeez!
I was gonna say...

[Rokcet Scientist]

But anyway, why would they single out Bushmen to sequence their genomes if the purpose is to gain insight in the variation in the total human population? There are only 90,000 Bushmen (and women) all together. It is a tiny minority of the southern African people. A distinctly different subrace. Like the Hottentots were (went extinct within a century of meeting the white man). Bushmen live in the desert, isolated from all the other Africans They live as HGs (very reminiscent of HG Aboriginals). There probably never were more in all of Africa than there are today. Taking less than a handful of specimens from a tiny tiny, and very isolated group like that and projecting it on the whole human (HSS) race doesn't seem very appropriate science to me!