A Big Experiment

[Tank]

I moved this thread out of science as I expected it to take a creationist turn, but as this has not happened I have moved it back to Science.

[bandit4god]

Now as all humans are now 46C configuration it is reasonable to think that within the mixed 48C/46C population the 46C configuration conferred some evolutionary advantage in a particular environment that was different from the ideal for the 48C configuration. Thus the gene pool evolved and the 48C remained and continued to evolve into the other great apes while the 46C population evolved into the 'Homo' line of which we are the only remaining example.

I'm asking a different question.  At some point in natural history, perhaps it was a Tuesday, the first 46C child was born of 48C parents.  (Would be very interesting to explore the scientific observability ofthis, by the way, but perhaps another time). 

Walk me through how that child became what you seem to take for granted in your earlier post, a "population" of 46C creatures.

[Tank]

Now as all humans are now 46C configuration it is reasonable to think that within the mixed 48C/46C population the 46C configuration conferred some evolutionary advantage in a particular environment that was different from the ideal for the 48C configuration. Thus the gene pool evolved and the 48C remained and continued to evolve into the other great apes while the 46C population evolved into the 'Homo' line of which we are the only remaining example.

I'm asking a different question.  At some point in natural history, perhaps it was a Tuesday, the first 46C child was born of 48C parents.  (Would be very interesting to explore the scientific observability ofthis, by the way, but perhaps another time). 

Walk me through how that child became what you seem to take for granted in your earlier post, a "population" of 46C creatures.

No problem. I don't take it for granted by the way.
This will take a while as I'm going to have to find the explaination that I have read. I'm not sure I can recall the process in detail from memory.

[bandit4god]

Now as all humans are now 46C configuration it is reasonable to think that within the mixed 48C/46C population the 46C configuration conferred some evolutionary advantage in a particular environment that was different from the ideal for the 48C configuration. Thus the gene pool evolved and the 48C remained and continued to evolve into the other great apes while the 46C population evolved into the 'Homo' line of which we are the only remaining example.

I'm asking a different question.  At some point in natural history, perhaps it was a Tuesday, the first 46C child was born of 48C parents.  (Would be very interesting to explore the scientific observability ofthis, by the way, but perhaps another time). 

Walk me through how that child became what you seem to take for granted in your earlier post, a "population" of 46C creatures.

No problem. I don't take it for granted by the way.
This will take a while as I'm going to have to find the explaination that I have read. I'm not sure I can recall the process in detail from memory.

Super, thanks!  In the meantime, I invite others to provide their articulations as well!

[Tank]

Now as all humans are now 46C configuration it is reasonable to think that within the mixed 48C/46C population the 46C configuration conferred some evolutionary advantage in a particular environment that was different from the ideal for the 48C configuration. Thus the gene pool evolved and the 48C remained and continued to evolve into the other great apes while the 46C population evolved into the 'Homo' line of which we are the only remaining example.

I'm asking a different question.  At some point in natural history, perhaps it was a Tuesday, the first 46C child was born of 48C parents.  (Would be very interesting to explore the scientific observability ofthis, by the way, but perhaps another time). 

Walk me through how that child became what you seem to take for granted in your earlier post, a "population" of 46C creatures.

No problem. I don't take it for granted by the way.
This will take a while as I'm going to have to find the explaination that I have read. I'm not sure I can recall the process in detail from memory.

Super, thanks!  In the meantime, I invite others to provide their articulations as well!

This is really annoying, but I took part in a thread about gene flow and genetic drift and somebody linked to a brilliant explaination. Can I find it again? Can I ****! 

I'll keep looking.

[bandit4god]

Parenthetically, I'm somewhat concerned that such questions and their answers are so obscure and difficult to find.  in Darwin's time, they imagined the changes as truly analog from generation to generation, and positioned the narrative as gradual change over nearly incomprehensible spans of time.  That language persists when we explain these things to 5th graders.  But when chromosomes, genetics, and the science of the thing was shown to necessitate discrete jumps (e.g., from 2C to 4C, or 48C to 46C), some scientist must have been wringing his hands wondering about the same fateful Tuesday I did.

The first Tuesday when a sole 46C child was born to 48C parents.

[bandit4god]

Found the following article that helped me understand the theory behind it, very well written!
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2008/04/basics_how_can_chromosome_numb.php

Is this the theory you had in mind, Tank and others?

[Tank]

Fixation of mutations appears to be related to the degree of advantage the mutation confers (the greater the advantage the better), the size of the breeding population the mutation first appears in (the smaller the population the more likely fixation is to occur) and the duration over which the breeding population remains isolated (the longer the better). So there you go