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Re:New type of ancient human discovered in Israel by throwawaygal7 on Friday June 25, 2021 @07:35AM (#27629446)
The numbers I've seen are something like as low as a few thousand for European population, but more like 5k for African populations

Of course, these are model populations based on idealized breeding right- I believe the way these estimates work is that they represent the idealized minimum bound for a real population that was likely magnitudes greater but had lots of deaths.

And as others have pointed out I believe there were several bottle neck events in the 'recent' past

Re:New type of ancient human discovered in Israel by JoeAltmaier on Friday June 25, 2021 @10:28AM (#27631181)
Then there is "Mitochondrial Eve", a single individual from whom entire sections of humanity descend!
Re:New type of ancient human discovered in Israel by hutzlibu on Friday June 25, 2021 @01:40PM (#27633963)
From Wikipedia:

"Cann, Stoneking and Wilson did not use the term "Mitochondrial Eve" or even the name "Eve" in their original paper; it appears to originate with a 1987 article in Science by Roger Lewin, headlined "The Unmasking of Mitochondrial Eve."[19] The biblical connotation was very clear from the start. The accompanying research news in Nature had the title "Out of the garden of Eden."[20] Wilson himself preferred the term "Lucky Mother"[21] and thought the use of the name Eve "regrettable"

It is unfortunate, that biblical myths still try to influence research. But it is popular.

Re:New type of ancient human discovered in Israel by CryptoPunk on Saturday June 26, 2021 @12:03AM (#27638993)
Myths are useful cultural references, in being universally understood. I didn't interpret the use of the term Eve here to connote any religious intimations.
Re:New type of ancient human discovered in Israel by hutzlibu on Saturday June 26, 2021 @04:26AM (#27640167)
Hm, but here even the researchers clearly said, that the use of "Eve" implicates a interpretation ( that there was only one Birthmother, like Eve, so a "proof" hat the bible is partly right) that is not true, but this is what understood by many, because also the news releases are skewed this way.
Re:New type of ancient human discovered in Israel by gonnano on Friday June 25, 2021 @11:53AM (#27632329)
Bryan Sykesan, An Oxford geneticist claimed all Europeans came from 7 females he called the 7 daughters of Eve, although he wasn't always right in his assumption's