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Genetic differences across Africa shouldn't be surprising when you consider how huge Africa really is. Africa is about as big as the US, China, and Europe combi
by MyOutfitIsVague 1y ago
Genetic differences across Africa shouldn't be surprising when you consider how huge Africa really is. Africa is about as big as the US, China, and Europe combined.
- bryanlarsen 1y agoMore importantly, humans have lived in Africa far longer than anywhere else in the world, so have had much more time to genetically diversify.
- ty6853 1y agoI was under the impression humans migrated from Africa so the rest of the world is all african-X, where the african- part is some subset of the original african population.
- desktopninja 1y ago"One drop rule" makes everyone black in America
- Tuna-Fish 1y agoThe effect is much larger than that. For most of the evolutionary history of humans, everyone* lived in Africa. Then only quite small groups left, taking with them only a small fraction of the genetic diversity of humans. Even today, the great majority of genetic diversity among living humans is inside Africa. (* who mattered. There were earlier migrations of hominids, but the mark they left on our genetics is much smaller than the influence from later migrations.)
- Shorel 1y agoIt's not just about size. Humans originated in Africa, so populations there have had more time to evolve and become more diverse. 200,000 years of genetic drift versus 20,000 years makes a big difference.
- anon291 1y agoAlso population bottlenecks. Only a handful of populations left Africa, whereas many remained back.