“About 98.7 percent of human ancestors were lost at the beginning of the bottleneck, thus threatening our ancestors with extinction,” the scientists wrote.
But outside experts said they were skeptical of the novel statistical methods that the researchers used for the study.
The studies all take advantage of the same basic facts of our biology: every baby is born with dozens of new genetic mutations, and some of those mutations can be handed down over thousands or even millions of years.
By comparing genetic variations in DNA, scientists can trace people’s ancestry to ancient populations that lived in different parts of the world, moved around and interbred.
They can even infer the size of those populations at different times in history.
Persons:
”, Stephan Schiffels
Organizations:
Max Planck Institute
Locations:
Leipzig, Germany