Worldbuilding: Population Bottlenecks, Founder Effect

[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith posted an interesting discussion on population bottlenecks.

While the article is rather interesting (“North America was populated by no more than 70 people 14,000 years ago, claims stunning new DNA research”), I find the links to Minimum Viable Population and Population Bottleneck more interesting.

World-building-wise, when discussing the exodus that landed people on Reiassan (as well as in contemplating the blue-haired McAliens in Vas’ World), I’ve had to keep in mind such concepts to be sure the populations are viable. But the Founder Effect gives me some fun grist for my mill…

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/42137.html. You can comment here or there.

6 thoughts on “Worldbuilding: Population Bottlenecks, Founder Effect

  1. I’m glad you found this useful. I approve of writers who do their homework! It makes for better stories.

    • 😀 Yes, yes it does. having a husband who is a Roman history buff means that um… the military of Reiassan has some Roman edges, because that’s the easy research 😉

  2. Couldn’t there have been more people, but they don’t have any living descendents? Surnames and bloodlines die out still, I doubt that’s a recent development!

    • I dunno? I’m still learning how this stuff works. I’d imagine they could have, but then they don’t count for the genetic pool.

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