Beyond Adaptation: The Human Brain Is Something New
Effective Population Size
Haplo has a large number of parameters. Two of those describe how the population reproduces. There is one parameter, alpha, a which controls variablility of fertility, and another, beta, which controls rates of monogamy. One interesting concept in population genetics is that these two parameters can be fudged together with the real population size, into an effective population size. Here is an intuitive / visual example of why that works.
Basic Population Genetics
All mutations start as single copy-errors but some of them increase in the population by random processes. Random differences in reproductive success cause some lineages to branch, and others to go extinct. Mutations are presumed to happen randomly at a more-or-less constant rate and accumulate as they are inherited by descendants. See the figure below. Each row represents a generation, with the present at the bottom, and each ball is a chromosome. The colored dots are different mutations or Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) the chromosome carries. The links from generation to generation show the ancestral lineage of each chromosome going back in time. Mutation and Genetic Drift Usually people think of generations as growing forward in time, with twigs coming Read More ›
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