Claphaminstitutets Fellow Ola Hössjer, professor i matematisk statistik vid Stockholms universitet har tillsammans med två andra forskare inom matematik och biologi arbetat fram en matematisk modell att användas vid studier av människans DNA. Utifrån den här modellen jämför de en mer traditionell evolutionsbiologisk teoribildning med hypotesen att mänskligheten härstammar från en man och en kvinna.
Författarnas modell utvecklas ytterligare i kapitlen ”Evidence for Human Uniqueness” och ”An Alternative Population Genetics Model” i den nyutkomna antologin Theistic Evolution: A Scientific, Philosophical, and Theological Critique. En introduktion kan läsas i Open Access-tidskriften Bio-Complexity, nu även här på Claphaminstutets webbplats.
Abstract
In a series of two papers (Part 1 and 2) we explore what can be said about human history from the DNA variation we observe among us today. Population genetics has been used to infer that we share a common ancestry with apes, that most of our human ancestors emigrated from Africa 50 000 years ago, that they possibly had some mixing with Neanderthals, Denisovans and other archaic populations, and that the early Homo population was never smaller than a few thousand individuals. Population genetics uses mathematical principles for how the genetic composition of a population develops over time through various forces of change, such as mutation, natural selection, genetic drift, recombinations and migration. In this article (Part 1) we investigate the assumptions about this theory and conclude that it is full of gaps and weaknesses. We argue that a unique origin model where humanity arose from one single couple with created diversity seems to explain data at least as well, if not better. We finally propose an alternative simulation approach that could be used in order to validate such a model. The mathematical principles of this model are described in more detail in our second paper (Part 2).
