I had never heard of "cumulative Bayesian skyline plots". A search on Google gave one hit, which was a dissertation quoting this study. I assume they mean "coa

I had never heard of "cumulative Bayesian skyline plots". A search on Google gave one hit, which was a dissertation quoting this study. I assume they mean "coalescent Bayesian skyline plots". Why invent a new name for something which already has a more informative name? I have great difficulty imagining a culture which could socially sustain an N_e of 1:17 (male to female). Just do a few sample calculations. The priviledged males would be massacred. A few things could explain it: (1) large scale male infanticide or male child castration (2) A disease which kills mainly male children. Both of these alternatives suffer from one of the same problems as their proposal: How would the cause (whatever it was) spread so relatively quickly among distantly seperated populations ? I think it far more likely they have made mistakes somewhere.