If I were to go back in time to the 9th century ad, would it be biologically possible to have a child with my distant grandfather? How genetically dissimilar are we?
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Your father shares 50% DNA with you.
Your grandfather, 25%.
Your great grandfather, 12.5%
Your great great grandfather, 6.25%
A first cousin shares 12.5% and a second cousin shares 3.125%.
So, your great, great grandfather falls somewhere between a first and second cousin. That’s not too icky….biologically.
weird question, however, wouldn’t be that similar honestly.
If we look at it in basic terms, you are half your mother and half your father. They in turn are half of each of their parents.
so it’s be 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16 and so on and so forth. the further back you go the less genetically similar it is. However there is some important depended on which genes are carried through that whole tree to if there are issues with the child. Should probably be fine though.
Your father shares 50% DNA with you.
Your grandfather, 25%.
Your great grandfather, 12.5%
Your great great grandfather, 6.25%
A first cousin shares 12.5% and a second cousin shares 3.125%.
So, your great, great grandfather falls somewhere between a first and second cousin. That’s not too icky….biologically.
weird question, however, wouldn’t be that similar honestly.
If we look at it in basic terms, you are half your mother and half your father. They in turn are half of each of their parents.
so it’s be 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16 and so on and so forth. the further back you go the less genetically similar it is. However there is some important depended on which genes are carried through that whole tree to if there are issues with the child. Should probably be fine though.
weird question, however, wouldn’t be that similar honestly.
If we look at it in basic terms, you are half your mother and half your father. They in turn are half of each of their parents.
so it’s be 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16 and so on and so forth. the further back you go the less genetically similar it is. However there is some important depended on which genes are carried through that whole tree to if there are issues with the child. Should probably be fine though.
Your father shares 50% DNA with you.
Your grandfather, 25%.
Your great grandfather, 12.5%
Your great great grandfather, 6.25%
A first cousin shares 12.5% and a second cousin shares 3.125%.
So, your great, great grandfather falls somewhere between a first and second cousin. That’s not too icky….biologically.
Parents and siblings is typically the concern for incest. Outside of that there is not a huge genetic concern.
Parents and siblings is typically the concern for incest. Outside of that there is not a huge genetic concern.
Parents and siblings is typically the concern for incest. Outside of that there is not a huge genetic concern.
Focusing on the biologically *possible,* rather than what is safe from an incest perspective as covered by other comments:
Of course! This is proven by the fact that people of very different ethnicities regularly have children together. You are more genetically similar to your 9th century ancestors than you are to people from other parts of the world. Genetic difference is roughly determined by time since the last common ancestor. For your 9th century ancestor and you, well, that last common ancestor is the very person you’re making a baby with, while for two people of European and African descent, the last common ancestor likely lived tens of thousands of years ago. While some people put a lot of emphasis on separating different “races” of humans, our genetic differences are – more or less literally – only skin deep. Even the most distantly related humans are extremely far from being different species, which is roughly what determines if children are biologically possible or not.
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