| |
|
In population genetics and evolutionary biology, a population bottleneck (or genetic bottleneck) is an evolutionary event in which a significant percentage of a population or species is killed or otherwise prevented from reproducing, and the population is reduced by 50% or more, often by several orders of magnitude. A graph of this change resembles the neck of a bottle, from wide to narrow; hence the name.
Population bottlenecks increase genetic drift, as the rate of drift is inversely proportional to the population size, which is reduced. It also changes the relationship of natural selection (see: inbreeding).
| Table of contents |
|
2 Northern elephant seals 3 See also 4 External links |
DNA evidence suggests that humans today are a legacy of a population bottleneck which occurred 70,000 years ago. This would have had the result of limiting the overall level of genetic diversity in the human species, possibly by a large amount.Humans