Humanity's Genetic Diversity on the Decline

jd writes "In a study covering five different periods of history, from 300 AD to the present day, and geographically spread across much of Europe, scientists have extracted the mitochondrial DNA from a sizable number of individuals in an effort to examine changes in diversity. The results, published in the Royal Society journal is intriguing to say the least. 1700 years ago, three out of every four individuals belonged to a different haplotype. In modern Europe, the number is only one in three. The researchers blame a combination of plague, selection of dominant lineages and culturally-inflicted distortions. The researchers say more work needs to be done, but are unclear if this involves archaeology or experiments involving skewing the data in the local female population."

Comments

Re:Is this news?

[mwvdlee]

Nobody said "fittest" is an absolute, nor even measurable. It just means "whatever has the best chance of survival in this environment". If any variable changes (such as the environment), it's likely some other trait becomes more "fit". As such; in an environment that changes rapidly, a more diverse genetic will have bigger chances, in a more stable environment, genetic markup would have the time to zero in on a particular direction. This vulnerability you describe only exists when one of the variables changes. Diversity may be (and probably is) a better trait in the long term, but in the short term it serves little purpose. There's probably millions of times in the past where diversity in human genes has grown, we happen to live in a time and environment that is stable enough for other traits to become more important than diversity and so these other traits tend to be the ones with the biggest chance of survival.

Re:Understatement

[Dystopian Rebel]

The catastrophic loss of ecological diversity may be just around the corner but the human equivalent has already happened and with a tiny fraction of the fanfare.

There have been many catastrophic losses of biodiversity on the planet and there will certainly be more before the Earth becomes barren.

I don't agree that the loss of societal habits, misconceptions and bugbears ("human culture") can be equated. These things may be dear to people but they are mostly rubbish.

Re:Don't worry

[hedwards]

That's hard to say. The ease of travel has been leading to a decrease in diversity within a species which is significantly less diverse than most other species already.

But as was pointed out in an article I read last year, what diversity looks like may very well be in transition. I don't personally quite buy the authors suggestion, but the trend is away from distinctive racial groups and more towards groupings based upon intellect and looks.

Which to some extent makes sense. The premium that most groups place on mating within the same group has been decreasing, at least around here, and people will always choose somebody that they find enjoyable to be around to those that are not. Frequently looks, intellect, sense of humor and health are considered selection criteria. So the idea that the groupings would be based upon that wouldn't be too outlandish.

Re:Is this news?

[geoffspear]

I went to a US public school where our principal told the senior class that we were damn well going to go to a prayer session before graduation or we wouldn't get our diplomas, despite a Supreme Court ruling the same year that held that even holding such a ceremony was definitely illegal. Yeah, our entire school system is run by a bunch of atheist communists who hate religion. Right.

This oppression is also why it's absolutely impossible to get elected President unless you're an avowed Atheist.