[ExI] The Yamnaya question

John Clark johnkclark at gmail.com
Sun Jun 2 12:57:34 UTC 2019


On Fri, May 31, 2019 at 11:42 PM Rafal Smigrodzki <
rafal.smigrodzki at gmail.com> wrote:

*> It is well established that mating with close relatives dramatically
> reduces evolutionary fitness*


It's true that a small geographically isolated population has a greater
likelihood of going extinct than the general population, but on the other
hand some do survive and the ones that do are where new species come from.

Causes of speciation
<https://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/evo_43>

Long before your Yamnaya something dramatic happened to humans about
33,000BC, stone weapons suddenly got much more refined and specialized
tools for cleaning animal skins and awls for piercing appeared, shoes were
invented and so was jewelry. Before 33,000BC there was little or no art,
after 33,000BC it was everywhere.

If this change in human behavior happened because of a change in the gene
pool then it almost certainly started in a mutation that occurred in a
individual
living in a small isolated population, the gene made the individual who had
it a better hunter and a better warrior and this evolutionary advantage could
easily rapidly spread through the entire population because it was so small.
After that there would be little to stop the small isolated population from
spreading out and becoming large, in fact becoming the dominate human
population. But if the mutation had occurred in a horse centered nomadic
population that ranged over a huge area it might have produced a few widely
separated clever people here and there but the mutated gene would become so
diluted by the huge gene pool it could never get a foothold.

John K Clark
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